The Counterfeit Revival

[Garland-Green]

The Counterfeit Revival
Article ID: DP244-1 | By: Hank Hanegraaff


Summary
Christianity is undergoing a paradigm shift of major proportions — a shift from faith to feelings; from fact to fantasy; and from reason to esoteric revelation. Leaders of this Counterfeit Revival, such as Rodney Howard-Browne and John Arnott, have peppered their preaching and practice with fabrications, fantasies, and frauds, seemingly unaware of the profound consequences. Many of the followers who at first flooded into Counterfeit Revival “power centers” have become disillusioned and have now slipped through the cracks into the kingdom of the cults.

John the Apostle warned, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). This warning is particularly relevant today, as Christianity is undergoing a paradigm shift of major proportions — a shift from faith to feelings; from fact to fantasy; and from reason to esoteric revelation. This paradigm shift is what I call the Counterfeit Revival.

Prophets of the Counterfeit Revival claim that a bloody civil war is going to polarize the entire Christian community. On one side will be those who embrace new revelations. On the other will be those who obstinately cling to reason. One “prophet” went so far as to say, “God is going to renovate the entire understanding of what Christianity is in the nations of the Earth….In twenty years there will be a totally different understanding of Christianity as we know it.”1

Some of the most recognizable names in the Christian community are endorsing this paradigm shift with little or no reservation. The appeal is so staggering that churches on every continent are now inviting their people to “experience” God in a brand new way. It is now estimated that seven thousand churches in England2 alone have embraced the Counterfeit Revival. And with each passing day the numbers are escalating dramatically.
Sardonic laughter, spasmodic jerks, signs and wonders, super apostles and prophets, and being “slain in the spirit” are pointed to as empirical evidence of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The form and function of the church are being so radically rearranged that even the secular world has taken note.

Time magazine, in an article titled “Laughing for the Lord,” pointed out that Anglican parishes across England today bear a greater resemblance to “rock concerts” and “rugby matches” than to Christian worship. The article says that sanctuaries throughout the world are littered with bodies as “supplicants sob, shake, roar like lions and strangest of all, laugh uncontrollably.”3 Newsweek, in an article titled “The Giggles Are for God,” reported that people in churches worldwide were jerking spasmodically, dancing ecstatically, and acting like animals. The article reported that this behavior by Christians has already spread from Canada to “roughly 7,000 congregations in Hong Kong, Norway, South Africa, and Australia, plus scores of churches in the United States.”4

Newspapers from the Orlando Sentinel to the Dallas Morning News have written stories on what is termed the “fastest-growing trend within Christianity.” According to The New York Times, this trend promotes an “experiential” Christianity that “promises an emotional encounter with God” manifested by “shaking, screaming, fainting and falling into trances.”5

THE HOLY GHOST BARTENDER
The scene was surreal. It looked like a bomb had exploded. Bodies were strewn haphazardly throughout the auditorium. Some lay motionless on the ground. Others twitched spasmodically. Behind me a woman shrieked, “I’m hot! I’m hot!” In front of me a girl was shaking violently. A boy standing in the aisle chopped feverishly with his hands at some imaginary object. Next to him a man whirled round and round in a circle. All the while waves of sardonic laughter cascaded eerily throughout the sanctuary.
A boy staggered drunkenly across the platform and collapsed at the feet of a man who called himself the “Holy Ghost Bartender.” The “Bartender,” Rodney Howard-Browne, screamed, “Git him, Jesus! Git him! Git him! Git him!” Suddenly he spun around and commanded two muscle-bound men to rise. “These men,” he said, “are my ‘guardian angels.’” Then, as if on cue, he moved deliberately in my direction. What happened next was best described by a charismatic pastor, who was an eyewitness: “I witnessed a stalking [by] a barroom bully.”

When the Holy Ghost Bartender (who also refers to himself as the Holy Ghost Hitman) arrived at my seat, he began threatening to have me thrown out of the sanctuary. “I’m telling you right now,” he hissed, “you’ll drop dead if you prohibit what God is doing!”6 Dramatically he gestured toward the crowd and warned them that those like me, who would dare question that what he was doing was of God, had committed the unpardonable sin and would not be forgiven in this world or the next.

The following day he crowed, “The last time I had a confrontation like that…was…with a bunch of Mormons… you could see their spirit, y’know…just a really religious, pharisaical spirit, that’s what it is. Amen?…And I smelt it — y’know, I can smell them religious devils from about a hundred yards —- I could smell them blindfolded, man….You could see, last night we meant business.”7 He labeled his critics “idiots” and warned that they were about to experience either “riot or revival.”8

The Fire Falls
What Rodney Howard-Browne refers to as “revival” had its genesis in July of 1979. At the age of 17, he says he gave God Almighty an ultimatum: “Either You come down here and touch me or I am going to come up there and touch You.”9 He began to shout over and over again, “God, I want your power!”10 He shouted until he was hoarse, frightening nearly everyone present. Rodney recounts that suddenly:

The fire of God came on me. It started on my head and went right down to my feet. His power burned in my body and stayed like that for four days. I thought I was going to die. I thought He was going to kill me….My whole body was on fire from the top of my head to the soles of my feet and out of my belly began to flow a river of living water. I began to laugh uncontrollably and then I began to weep and then speak with other tongues….I was so intoxicated on the wine of the Holy Ghost that I was beside myself. The fire of God was coursing through my whole being and it didn’t quit….Because of this encounter with the Lord, my life was radically changed from that day on.11

Although Rodney experienced a few subsequent manifestations of divine power, it was not until 1990 that this anointing returned to stay. By this time Rodney had moved from South Africa to America, and by his own admission had a ministry that was nothing to write home about. Despite that fact, when the unusual manifestations resurfaced, Rodney became indignant. Speaking to the Almighty, he said, “God, You’re ruining my meetings!”12 God retorted, “Son, the way your meetings are going, they’re worth ruining.”13
And ruin them He did! As the story goes, in Albany, New York, two people were merely walking down a church aisle when God enveloped them in a “thick fog or mist” and they “fell out under the power.”14 In a meeting in New Jersey people began to “jump out of wheelchairs without anyone touching them.”15 At times the anointing of the Holy Spirit would blow into buildings so powerfully that Rodney had to hold onto the podium, “because it nearly blew me flat on the floor.”16 One time the power of God hit a whole row of people, causing them to fall on their backs “before the ushers could catch them.”17
Rodney says that even he was “amazed” at what happened when he prayed for people. At times they would be “picked up and thrown over three rows of chairs like a piece of rag.”18 On one occasion, while Rodney was praying for a man, the power of God allegedly came over his shoulder like a whirlwind. The man saw it coming and tried to duck, but it was too late. The whirlwind “picked him up off the ground, level with my waist,” said Rodney, and “then it struck him to the ground….I was shocked. As the power hit him, the first couple of rows all went out. It was like a Holy Ghost tornado came in there.”19

That was only the beginning of the unusual manifestations. In addition to becoming drunk in the Spirit, being knocked down by the Spirit, and getting enveloped in the mist of the Spirit, suddenly people were subjected to the “glue” of the Spirit.

One of Rodney’s books has a section titled “Holy Ghost Glue.”20 In it he recounts the story of a wealthy woman who got “stuck” in the Spirit. As Rodney tells it: “She was lying there from noon until 1:30….At 1:30, she tried to get up. She wanted to get up. She couldn’t. All she could do was flap her hands. So she was lying there flapping away — flap, flap, flap, flap….2:30, 3:30, 4:30….At 4:30 the woman was still saying, ‘I can’t get up. I’m stuck to the floor.’”21

She flapped so long that, as Rodney put it, he ended up “walking out on the Holy Spirit”:

I turned to the pastor and said, “Look, I haven’t had either breakfast or lunch. It’s 4:30. I’m not stuck and you’re not stuck. These people are going to stay here with her, so let’s go have a meal before the night service.” The ushers told us later that at 6 o’clock the woman finally peeled herself off the carpet. Then it took her an hour to crawl from the center of the church auditorium to the side wall. She had been stuck to the floor for six hours! By 7 o’clock she couldn’t talk in English anymore. She tried to talk, but only tongues came out of her mouth. She couldn’t help it. She was totally filled — and totally inebriated, saturated, and drunk in the Holy Ghost! The ushers put her in the back row thinking that she wouldn’t disturb anyone, but she interfered with everyone who came through the door.

I’ve never seen anything like it. Five women were sitting around her, were struck dumb — they couldn’t talk — Their husbands were rejoicing.22

The Big Time
The “big break” that would propel Rodney into international visibility happened in the spring of 1993.23 Charisma magazine reported that Rodney’s “rise to fame began…during a watershed meeting at Carpenter’s Home Church in Lakeland, Florida.”24 Laughter in the Spirit caught on there, “jetting Howard-Browne, 33, out of obscurity, whisking him from Alaska to the Pentagon.”25
Assemblies of God pastor Karl Strader invited Rodney to preach and perform at Carpenter’s Home Church in its ten-thousand-seat auditorium. At the time Strader was struggling professionally through the trauma of a church split.26 In addition he was struggling personally with what Charisma magazine reported as his son’s arrest for racketeering charges “stemming from an alleged pyramid scheme involving more than $3.7 million.”27 Rodney’s revival rhetoric provided Strader with just the release he thought he needed. According to Strader’s friends, Charles and Frances Hunter (popular charismatic leaders known as the Happy Hunters), “he had spent six weeks on the floor of his church laughing, having the most wonderful time of his life.”28

While Rodney apparently provided Strader with a chance to laugh at his problems, Strader provided Rodney with the opportunity to finally capture his claims on camera. As thousands looked on, however, Rodney’s claims of the miraculous did not materialize. No mighty, rushing wind blew into the auditorium, causing Rodney to hold onto the podium so that he would not be blown flat on the floor. No one was picked up and thrown over three rows of chairs like a piece of rag. People did not “jump out of wheelchairs without anyone touching them,”29 and no one was raised from the dead. Instead, Rodney was relegated to resuscitating tales of bygone miracles as well as delivering a litany of well-rehearsed jokes.

One thing Rodney did produce, however, was an epidemic of “spiritual drunkenness.” In response to his cries of “Fill, fill, fill! More, more, more!” or “Git ‘em, Jesus, git ‘em, git ‘em, git ‘em!” a growing number of people began to manifest signs of intoxication. Some fell to the floor in uncontrollable laughter while others got stuck in “Holy Ghost Glue.” As Rodney commanded God to give people double and triple doses of His “New Wine,” some even went “dumb in the Spirit.” Most notable among them was Pastor Strader himself, who struggled pathetically to speak but could emit only unintelligible grunts.

News of the laughter that erupted in Lakeland “spread quickly on the charismatic grapevine,”30 drawing thousands of spiritually starved saints to the church sanctuary. What was originally scheduled to be a week’s worth of meetings eventually stretched into three months.31

Lakeland had suddenly become the spiritual destination of choice. Christian leaders from America, Africa, Australia, Argentina, and elsewhere began to make pilgrimages to Florida to witness the “bizarre emotional displays”32 firsthand. Among them was Richard Roberts, the President of Oral Roberts University (ORU), who was struggling under the weight of a 40 million dollar debt inherited from his father, Oral. After his introduction to Lakeland’s laughter, “Roberts says he ended up on the floor laughing at every Howard-Browne meeting as have members of his family.”33

Oral Roberts, who also attended the Lakeland meetings, was so enamored with Rodney Howard-Browne that he proclaimed that Rodney’s ministry signaled the arrival of “another level in the Holy Spirit.”34 Oral said that Rodney was “raised up from a new kind of seed, with a new kind of revelation…yet a fresh wave.”35

After seeing Rodney perform in Lakeland, Richard and Oral invited him to come to Tulsa for a series of meetings at Oral Roberts University. The response was so overwhelming that classes had to be canceled as students fell to the floor and laughed.

Karl Strader was so enthusiastic over the dramatic changes in the lives of these Christian superstars that he called the Happy Hunters and encouraged them “to come down and participate in this.”36 After doing so, the Hunters were impressed enough to label “Holy” Laughter an “End-Time Revival.”37 They concluded that in this revival “the Spirit of God is swiftly moving in breathtaking and sometimes startling new ways, and people of every tongue and every nation are letting out what is on the inside of them. People of all races and denominations are radically falling in love with Jesus in a brand new way! They are running at a fast pace to ‘Joel’s Bar’ where the drinks are free and there is no hangover.”38

The Vatican of the Faith Movement
After their visit in Lakeland the Happy Hunters went on to spread “Holy” Laughter throughout Europe. Back home in America, “Holy” Laughter was to get a powerful shot in the arm as well. Events that ultimately would lead to a worldwide laughing revival were precipitated when Howard-Browne, himself a former associate pastor of a Word of Faith church in South Africa, was summoned to speak at the “Vatican” of Faith theology — Kenneth Hagin’s Rhema Bible Training Center (located near Tulsa, Oklahoma).
Rodney Howard-Browne was tailor-made for Rhema. The parallels between his preaching and practice and those of Rhema’s founder, Kenneth Hagin, are striking. Like Rodney, Hagin is quick to pronounce divine judgment on those who dare to question his prophetic ministry. Hagin has gone so far as to predict the untimely death of a pastor who doubted his false doctrine. According to Hagin, “The pastor fell dead in the pulpit…because he didn’t accept the message that God gave me to give him from the Holy Spirit.”39
Years before Rodney began popularizing “Holy” Laughter, Hagin preached and practiced “Holy” Laughter at Rhema. Thus, when Rodney Howard-Browne came to this “Mecca” of faith theology in August 1993, most of the people were well prepared for what he brought. One person, however, was not.

THE VINEYARD CONNECTION
Randy Clark had traveled to Rhema discouraged, disillusioned, and close to a complete breakdown. He was a burned-out pastor from the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Saint Louis who, over the 24 years of his ministry, had gradually lost the fervency of his faith. The Bible no longer spoke to him; he no longer wanted to pray; and he did not like going to church. He was at Rhema for Rodney’s appearances only because of the persistent urging of a friend “who moved in power” and in “the gift of discernment.”40
Reluctantly, Randy Clark gave in and decided to attend Rodney’s next appearance. He was dismayed when he found out it was to be at Rhema. Clark was passionately opposed to the Faith movement and agreeing to go to Rhema was like Daniel’s asking to be thrown into the lion’s den.
Randy now says that in the midst of his spiritual disillusionment, God rebuked him, saying, “You have a…denominational spirit if you think you can only drink of the well of your own…group.”41 God then asked Randy a very pertinent question: “How badly do you want me?”42 Thus chastened by the Almighty, Randy made his pilgrimage to Rhema.

Randy, Rodney, and Rhema
To his own amazement, at Rhema he “fell under the power” as Rodney prayed for him. At first he doubted that the experience was real because he was not “shaking” and “hurting from electricity”43 as he had during a similar experience at a Vineyard in 1989. However, the accompanying phenomena convinced Randy that this was a genuine encounter with the Holy Spirit. While he was “pinned to the floor,” says Randy, “two bodies down from me there was somebody oinking!”44 Randy immediately began laughing in the spirit and then got drunk in the spirit. In time, Randy got so drunk that he was actually afraid the police would arrest him on his way home.45
Randy’s associate pastor, Bill Mares, who had accompanied him and received the blessing as well, couldn’t wait to bring the Rhema experience back home. Randy, however, did not want to bring the manifestations into his church until he had spent six months preparing his people. When Bill said, “I can’t wait that long,” Randy pulled rank and countered, “I’m the senior pastor.” God allegedly intervened then by impressing Randy with the words, “I’m God and I’ll do it when I want.”46

We All Fall Down
And do it He did. Their first Sunday back, while his congregation was worshiping God, a woman on the worship team fell, knocked over a guitar stand, and began to laugh uncontrollably. As Randy points out, “She just didn’t fall and lie still, she’s laying there, doing this — Laughing! — Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! All the way through forty-five minutes of worship, just continues to do this.”47 Although none of his people had ever fallen in church before, by the end of the service virtually everyone enthusiastically rushed forward to be touched by Randy, who recounted later, “WHOOOMP! Wall to wall people…. BOOOM! Boy, this is fun! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!”48 As Rodney had touched Randy, Randy now touched his people, and they all fell down.

The initial impact of Randy’s visit to Rhema was merely a harbinger of things to come. A woman, who had been touched in Randy’s church, received a vision in which she saw Toronto, Canada. In her vision Toronto was “on fire and little blades of fire [were] going three hundred-sixty degrees all over Canada.”49 Sure enough, not long after this vision, Randy received a call from a Vineyard pastor named John Arnott, whose church was located in Toronto, Canada.50

Arnott had heard about Randy’s participation in a regional meeting of Vineyard churches in which every pastor, as well as all of their wives (except one) were touched by “drunkenness and partying.”51 Arnott wanted Randy to export these experiences to Canada.

A Wing and a Prayer
Pastor Randy, however, was afraid to step out as a guest leader because, as he put it, he had only “a testimony and maybe one other sermon.” Once again God intervened. This time, instead of speaking directly to Randy, God sent him a prophetic pronouncement through a Baptist friend named Richard Holcomb, whose record of prophetic accuracy in the past was allegedly one hundred percent.

Repeating himself three times, presumably for emphasis, God said (through Holcomb), “Test me now. Test me now. Test me now. Do not be afraid. I will back you up. I want your eyes to be opened to see my spiritual resources in the heavenlies for you just as Elijah prayed that Gehazi’s eyes would be opened. And do not become anxious because when you become anxious you can’t hear me.”52

Randy later pronounced “that prophetic word” to be the very thing that “changed my life.” Randy is now convinced that without this prophecy, he would not have made the transition from being an emotionally disturbed pastor to becoming the conduit through which the new wine of the Spirit would be dispensed to people who until now had never even conceived of Holy Ghost Glue or divine drunkenness. Within hours of the prophecy, Randy was in a van, headed to the airport. It was a mission that would forever change not only his life, but also the lives of multiplied millions of other people later touched by what has come to be known as the “Toronto Blessing.”

The Toronto Blessing
Long before Randy Clark’s January 1994 trip to Canada, Toronto Airport Vineyard pastor John Arnott was being conditioned for what was to follow. As his wife, Carol Arnott, explains, “God also spoke to John and said, ‘I want you to hang around people that have an anointing.’”53

According to Carol, God directed them back to an old friend named Benny Hinn.54 When Benny would get through ministering to them backstage, Carol would be so drunk that John would have to carry her home.55 John, however, did not “feel anything.”56

In June of 1993 Rodney Howard-Browne prayed for John Arnott, but the results were the same. In November of that year he embarked on an expedition to Argentina, where he was prayed over by a Pentecostal pastor named Claudio Freidzon, who himself had undertaken a spiritual pilgrimage through which he received “an impartation of spiritual anointing from both Benny Hinn and Rodney Howard-Browne.”57 Freidzon’s ministry was now characterized by manifestations of “uncontrollable laughter.”58
Claudio Freidzon asked Arnott “if he wanted this new empowerment, and if so to take it.” While Carol, as John puts it, “went flying,”59 John didn’t know whether “to stand, fall, roll or forget it.”60 John fell down, but he suspected that he was just “going along with it” as he had many times before. When John got up from the floor, Claudio walked over to him and said, “Do you want it?”61 Claudio then slapped John on both of his hands and immediately Arnott felt God prompt him with the message, “For goodness sake will you take this? It’s yours.”62 With those words Arnott finally gave in and received the breakthrough he had been seeking so desperately.

The Arnotts traveled back from Argentina with great expectations. When they heard that, like them, Randy Clark had been touched, they invited him to speak. On January 20, 1994, he gave his testimony before 120 attendees at the Toronto Airport Vineyard. In short order “almost 80 percent of the people were on the floor.”63 As John tells the story, “It was like an explosion. We saw people literally being knocked off their feet by the Spirit of God….Others shook and jerked. Some danced, some laughed. Some lay on the floor as if dead for hours. People cried and shouted.”64

Like the congregation, the staff of the Toronto Airport Vineyard was dramatically impacted. Arnott reported that the sound man got “drunk, drunk, drunk.”65 The church receptionist could not speak for three days and after that, “could only speak in tongues.”66 Delighted, Arnott described how “our staff loves to get me on the floor, you know, they all run over, ‘Hey he’s down,’ you know. They come ‘More, Lord!’ [and] they try to get me to shake or jerk or something. It just makes their day.”67

Party Now, Check the Fruit Later
As news of the strange goings on in Toronto spread, spiritually starved seekers from across North America and abroad began flocking to Toronto. Many have brought the experience back with them to their churches (e.g., Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in London), causing the “laughing revival” to become a truly global phenomenon.

Not everyone who has come seeking the Spirit in Toronto has been filled, however. John believes many frustrated seekers simply would not let go of their emotions. The reason John himself had such a hard time getting drunk and falling in the Spirit was, as Carol clarified, “You control your emotions. You control your responses.”68

Controlling emotions is not only harmful to an individual, but doing so can also have a significant impact on others. John explains, “Many times Carol and I will be praying for people, we’re soakin’ ‘em, soakin’ ‘em, soakin’ ‘em, feel the anointing going in. Next thing you know the guy that’s supposed to be catching goes flying back ‘cause it just kind of, it’s got to go somewhere. If the person doesn’t take it, it goes to the catcher, or it rebounds back on the person praying, or something where they can’t take it.” This dilemma can be solved, John says, if he and the other leaders “break those controls off of people and boom, they’ll take it just like that.”69

Another reason for failing to receive is people’s fear of deception. The antidote, says Arnott, is not to become a good discerner, but instead, when one comes “asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I don’t want you to even entertain the thought that you might get a counterfeit.”70 John notes that, in the past, Vineyard leaders made mistakes regarding the supernatural: “We used to think when people shook, shouted, flopped, rolled, etc., that it was a demonic thing manifesting and we needed to take them out of the room. That was our grid, that’s what our experience had taught us, that demons could be powerful.”71 Now John thinks these kinds of situations should be handled simply by enjoying the experiences and checking the “fruit” later. He explains, “Why would we focus, then, on ‘Yeah, but I don’t like the way he fell and shook and got stuck to the floor and everything!’ Listen! Who cares whether he did or he didn’t? Who cares? If he thinks it’s God and he likes it, let him enjoy it! Because you can test the fruit later.”72 Caution would be a big mistake: “If you play it safe with this thing, the Holy Spirit, you know what? You’re never going to get anywhere.”73

Arnott is quick to admit that in the beginning he had no “theological framework for parties.”74 He adds, “I had no desire for Christians to fall down, roll around and laugh.” Instead he says he wanted God to “save the lost, heal the sick, and expand the kingdom.”75 Today, however, he proudly promotes parties during which Christians get “thoroughly blasted” while “Jesus picks up the tab.”76

While he is happy to “marinate”77 Christians in the Holy Spirit, he complained when God began bringing “animal sounds” and “strange prophecy”78 to the party. When the Almighty allegedly asked, “Would you like Me to take it away?” Arnott quickly acquiesced.79

Arnott’s assumption that God was more interested in evangelism than experiences led to another unexpected revelation as well. As he preached salvation messages, he began to sense a “quenching of the Spirit.” He went to the Lord in prayer and asked, “Well, why, why is this hard, like I would have thought you would have liked it if I’d have preached on that.” To his astonishment, the Lord replied, “It’s because you’re pushing Me.” And then God said, “Is it all right with you if I just love up on My church for a while?”80
John not only discussed this issue with God but he also discussed it with Randy Clark. Randy, like John, came to the conviction that, rather than giving people “the heavy message of holiness to start with,”81 it was wise for God to throw “a party first.”82 Randy later elaborated: if God had not first thrown a party, “the church couldn’t even have responded” because “most of the people in church already feel so icky about themselves.”83

No Laughing Matter
As attractive as they believe the “party” is, Laughing Revival leaders seem convinced that the day is coming when critics will polarize in opposition to those who know how to enjoy the party. Vineyard prophets Wes and Stacey Campbell point out that after people “throughout the entire Christian community of the world” find out about the party, “there will come a polarization.”84 The Campbells warn that this is “no laughing matter.”85 A horrendous “time of bloodshed” is coming in which “there won’t be a house that escapes weeping.”86 God Himself (using Stacey Campbell as His mouthpiece) called upon those gathered at the Toronto Airport Vineyard:
Grab all you can while you can get it. Take what you can while you can have it. For the days are coming, says the Lord, when a great division will begin in the church, and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. And your parents will criticize you, and speak evil of you and say they have lost you to a cult. And your sons and daughters will say, “My parents have gone crazy.” And there will be mourning in the house of God.

And I tell you there are those even among you now who are here simply to spread discord among the brethren. . . . And for the one who comes to bring division, to divide the Church of Christ, to cut off His arms and His legs, and the toes from His feet, the Lord says it would be better for Sodom and Gommorah than it will be for that one on that day. But I tell you, nonetheless, that division will come, and it is even now brewing like a leaven in the church.

For the Lord calls you right now, this day, seeing what you are seeing, hearing of the miracles you are hearing of, seeing the fruit of God that you are seeing, to call it God, endure to the end and be saved, or to follow after human wisdom and reasoning that kills the word of faith and brings division and justifies in self-righteousness the dividing of the church.
The Lord wants you to purpose in your heart this night, is it God or isn’t it, and to stand by your commitment as you are called to stand by your confession of faith.87

God Almighty then summed up his sentiments in just three words — “Choose! Choose! Choose!”88

John Arnott likens the choice God is calling for to that which faced the Israelites while they were wandering in the desert three thousand years ago. Says Arnott, “God came along with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” However, “due to fear and unbelief,” the Israelites failed “to possess the kingdom of God.”89 According to Arnott, God is once again giving us an opportunity to “enter the promised land.” The question is, will we be “radical enough to go for it”?90

THE FATAL FRUIT
The promised land described by John Arnott, Rodney Howard-Browne, and other proponents of this Counterfeit Revival is a utopia in which Christians will be “the head and not the tail,” “the lender, not the borrower.” They will dominate the sociopolitical systems of the day, and their leaders will be the greatest in the history of humanity.

Leaders of the Counterfeit Revival claim Christianity is in the embryonic stages of a new Pentecost more potent and powerful than the New Testament Pentecost. Arnott says, “We are currently in a time similar to the ministry of John the Baptist, which is preparing the way for a soon-coming time resembling the ministry of Jesus where powerful signs, wonders and miracles will take place.”91

“The Best One So Far”
Of all the miracles claimed by the Counterfeit Revival, Arnott calls the healing of Sarah Lilliman “the best one so far.” Arnott not only tells his unsuspecting audience that the healing was “documented,” but also he makes a point to chide those who may not have had the kind of faith it took to facilitate the miracle.92

Sarah, says Arnott, was “like a vegetable…totally incapacitated, paralyzed, and blind.” Her friend, “out under the power [at the Toronto Airport Vineyard] has a vision: Jesus said, ‘Go pray for Sarah, your friend, I’m going to heal her.’” To enthusiastic applause, Arnott continues, “That girl, totally incapacitated, paralyzed and blind, after two and a half hours of soaking prayer, got up seeing.”

Sadly, however, Arnott’s story plays fast and loose with the truth. An examination of the facts shows just how wildly Arnott has embellished his story:

• Sarah was not totally incapacitated, paralyzed, and blind; Sarah’s doctors had diagnosed significant psychosomatic emotional problems underlying her physical problems.

• Jesus did not heal Sarah as He supposedly promised her friend He would.

• When Arnott’s associate (who allegedly documented the case) was
interviewed, he confessed that he had not done any investigation.
Two months later, during a visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard, Sarah’s friend claimed that God once again had a word for her. This time the Almighty told Sarah (through her friend) that if she “would go to the front of the church and testify, He would heal her eyes.”93 An Arnott associate then promised Sarah that God was not only going to heal her eyes, but would heal her emotions as well.

Today, despite the broad circulation of this story by Arnott and his associates as evidence of God’s power in the Toronto Blessing, Sarah is still, as before, legally blind. Unfortunately, just as before, she and her family are continuing to struggle with her physical and psychosomatic disorders.
As will become painfully clear in Parts Two and Three of this series, this fabrication on the part of John Arnott is not unique. Fellow Counterfeit Revivalists pepper their appearances with fabrications, fantasies, and frauds, seemingly unaware of the disastrous consequences. Followers who at first crowded through the front doors of their churches often become disillusioned and fall out the back doors, some even into the kingdom of the cults. They no longer know what to believe and secretly fear that the untrustworthiness of those who claim to be God’s representatives may indicate the untrustworthiness of God Himself.

The Story of Kristy
I will close this installment with the story of one such disillusioned follower, who called me on the Bible Answer Man broadcast May 1, 1996. Just before signing off that day, I squeezed in one last phone call. The female voice on the other end of the line was obviously shaken and scared. She told me that her pastor had traveled to the Toronto Airport Vineyard and had “brought this thing back with him.” While he had gone a skeptic, he returned a believer, persuaded that the power he had personally encountered was real. He convinced his parishioners to let him pray over them and they, too, began to experience what he had experienced. Kristy, however, did not experience anything but frustration.

If this was from God as her pastor claimed, she desperately needed His touch. “Why, God?” she pleaded, “Why are you leaving me out?” She sat down on the floor and began to cry bitterly as people all around her continued to laugh, shake, and be slain in the spirit. Suddenly, she realized she was flat on the floor, unable to move. Instantly her frustration turned to fear.
Although she recounted this to me more than a year later, I could still hear the fear in her voice. I was convinced she needed to understand exactly what had happened to her. I began by explaining why the experience she had been subjected to was unbiblical and dangerous. I described some of the common consequences of such behavior: wild swings of emotion, depression, anxiety, anger, irrational outbursts, prolonged trances, feelings of alienation, and confusion. As I spoke, she began to weep.

“That’s what happened to me!” she said between sobs. As she struggled to regain her composure, Kristy confessed that she was still reeling from the effects of her experience. She said that after she had finally gotten up off the ground, she felt as though she had “just run a one hundred mile marathon.” In fact, the physical effects of her depression became so severe that her physician had to place her on antidepressant medication.

The spiritual consequences were equally severe. She began to question Christianity altogether. The happiness she had sought so desperately through an esoteric experience had turned into a living hell:

My relationship with the Lord is totally turned upside down. I am afraid to pray. I am afraid to find out what that experience really was, because I know it wasn’t of the Lord. I’m afraid to go to church, afraid of God. I’ve seen things that go against every good thing I learned in the Bible as a new Christian. It terrifies me. It’s so scary to me. I’m afraid this has done something to my husband and me forever.

It has taken both of us so long to get back into the discipline of Bible study and prayer. It’s almost like we don’t understand salvation anymore. I remember days when it was so clear, and now it seems so confusing. I’m still scared. We read and we pray, but still the relationship we had just doesn’t seem to be what it used to be. I don’t call this a “blessing!” It was a nightmare that is just now beginning to lift from me, my husband, and our marriage. It makes me so angry to see how much this has hurt our family and messed up our relationships.

I can’t believe where I’m at now spiritually. I have no desire for the Lord. I am now so critical and so skeptical that I don’t know who to trust.
I know there are so many believers like me who don’t know. It was so gradual. When the leadership you’ve trusted, the leadership that seemed to be so grounded in the Word endorses this stuff, you feel guilty going against it.

As I continued to talk with Kristy, she began to understand how she, like her pastor, had succumbed to the sociopsychological manipulation tactics that will be described in Part Three of this series. She also began to comprehend that these manipulation techniques provided the fertile soil in which satanic and spiritual deception grow.

Understanding brought closure, and suddenly she began to see the silver lining in this ominous cloud. “My story has to help others,” she said, “otherwise it is a waste. I can speak from both sides now. I experienced the numbness in my body, but now I know it wasn’t from God. If I can help someone, then it will be worth all the pain. I know the experience was real; now I also know how it was produced. Now more than ever, I know it wasn’t from God.”*This article is adapted from Hank Hanegraaff’s book, Counterfeit Revival, published by Word Publishing, April 1997.

NOTES
1Mike Bickle, Overview of Corporate Long Term Vision (n.p.), 5 January 1986; audiotape.2Figures given by both news sources and leaders of the Counterfeit Revival are not always consistent.3Richard Ostling, “Laughing for the Lord” in Time, 15 August 1994, 38.4Kenneth L. Woodward, Jeanne Gordon, Carol Hall, and Barry Brown, “The Giggles Are for God,” Newsweek, 20 February 1995, 54. 5Walter Goodman, “About Churches, Souls, and Show-Biz Methods,” The New York Times, 16 March 1995, B4.6Rodney Howard-Browne, 17 January 1995, meeting at Melodyland Christian Center, Anaheim, CA.7Ibid.8Rodney Howard-Browne, 16 and 17 January 1995, meeting at Melodyland Christian Center, Anaheim, CA.9Rodney Howard-Browne, Fresh Oil from Heaven (Louisville, KY: RHBEA Publications, 1992), 28; see also his The Touch of God (Louisville, KY: RHBEA Publications, 1992), 73; Manifesting the Holy Ghost (Louisville, KY: RHBEA Publications, 1992), 14; and related in Charisma magazine, August 1994, 22-23.10Rodney Howard-Browne, Flowing in the Holy Ghost (Louisville, KY: RHBEA Publications, 1991), 15. In other booklets such as Manifesting the Holy Ghost (14), Howard-Browne says he shouted, “God, I want your fire! Let the fire fall here tonight like it did at Pentecost!”11Howard-Browne, Fresh Oil from Heaven, 27-28. In some renditions of this story, Howard-Browne says the fire burned in his body for three rather than for four days (such as in his The Touch of God, 74).12Howard-Browne, Manifesting the Holy Ghost, 29.13Ibid.14Howard-Browne, The Touch of God, 100.15Howard-Browne, Manifesting the Holy Ghost, 22.16Ibid., 25.17Ibid.18Howard-Browne, The Touch of God, 133-34.19Ibid., 134.20Howard-Browne, Manifesting the Holy Ghost, 25.21Ibid., 26-27.22Ibid.23Julia Duin, “Praise the Lord and Pass the New Wine,” Charisma, August 1994, 23.24Ibid., 21.25Ibid.26Dave Roberts, The “Toronto” Blessing (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway Publications, 1994), 87.27“News Briefs,” Charisma, August 1994, 62.28Charles and Frances Hunter, Holy Laughter (Kingwood, TX: Hunter Books, 1994), 35.29Howard-Browne, Manifesting the Holy Ghost, 22, 25; Howard-Browne, The Touch of God, 134.30Duin, 24.31Richard M. Riss, in A History of the Worldwide Awakening of 1992-1995, 11th ed. (self-published, 15 October 1995), 10, says it was 13 weeks.32J. Lee Grady, “Laughter in Lakeland,” Charisma, August 1995, 61-62. 33Duin, 24.34Ibid.35Riss, 12.36Hunters, 35.37Ibid., front cover copy.38Ibid., 5.39Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1993), 336.40Randy Clark, Catch the Fire ‘94, Test Me Now…I Will Back You Up. Toronto Airport Vineyard, 13 October 1994; audiotape. 41Ibid.42Ibid. 43Ibid.44Riss, 22.45Clark.46Riss, 22; and Clark.47Riss, 22; and Clark.48Clark. Although this is the consistent story found in most of Randy’s messages and recounted in Riss as well (22), Guy Chevreau tells a different story, perhaps about a subsequent event, or perhaps he is confused about when the revival began in Randy’s church. Chevreau says, “Five months later, at a Browne meeting Randy attended in Lakeland, Florida, Rodney discerned a powerful anointing being released in Randy’s life — he came over to him and said, ‘This is the fire of God in your hands; go home and pray for everyone in your church.’ The first Sunday of Randy’s return, he did as instructed, and saw a similar outbreak of the Spirit as he ministered” (Guy Chevreau, Catch the Fire: The Toronto Blessing — An Experience of Renewal and Revival [London: Marshall Pickering, 1994], 24-25).49Clark.50At the beginning of 1996 the Toronto Airport Vineyard changed its name to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship after the church was no longer accepted as a member of the Association of Vineyard Churches. Since in this article most of the comments quoted from Toronto leaders were said before the name change, in most instances I have retained the name Toronto Airport Vineyard.51Clark.52Clark. There is a slightly different version of this message recounted by Chevreau in Catch the Fire, 25.53Riss, 23.54Ibid.55John Arnott and Guy Chevreau, Pastor’s Conference, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 19 October 1994; audiotape transcript. 56John Arnott, Discovery Church, Orlando, Florida, 29 January 1995; audiotape transcript.57Roberts, 64.58Ibid., 15.59Chevreau, 23.60Ibid.61Ibid., 24.62Ibid.63John Arnott, The Father’s Blessing (Orlando: Creation House Publishers, 1995), 20. 64Ibid., 71-72.65Quoted in Riss, 26.66Ibid.67John Arnott, Discovery Church.68Ibid.69Ibid.70John Arnott, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 16 December 1994; audiotape transcript.71John Arnott, Dynamics of Receiving Spiritual Experiences, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 18 November 1994; audiotape transcript.72Ibid. 73John Arnott, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 16 December 1994.74John Arnott, The Father’s Blessing, 210.75Ibid., 206.76Ibid., 224 and 209-10.77Ibid., 167.78Ibid., 183.79Ibid.80Arnott and Chevreau.81Clark.82Ibid.83Ibid.84Wes Campbell, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 14 October 1994; audiotape transcript.85Ibid.86Ibid.87Ibid.88Ibid.89John Arnott, The Father’s Blessing, 204.90Ibid., 205.91Spread the Fire, May/June 1995, vol. 1, no. 3, 2.92John Arnott, “Valuing the Anointing,” Toronto Airport Vineyard, 15 October 1994; audiotape.93Chevreau, 148; see also, James A. Beverley, Holy Laughter and the Toronto Blessing (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 115-20.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

he Counterfeit Revival (Part Two)
Article ID: DP244-2 | By: Hank Hanegraaff


Summary
The deceptions of the Counterfeit Revival include both visionary hoaxes and revisionary history. Its leaders appeal to one of the leading figures in American revivalism, Jonathan Edwards, to prove that the bizarre behaviors and extrabiblical revelations of their own “revival” are signs of an authentic work of God. Edwards did describe unusual manifestations that accompanied conversions during the First Great Awakening, but the great New England theologian was actually one of the most eloquent critics the church has ever seen of the principles and practices that characterize the Counterfeit Revival.
James Ryle, director of the Promise Keepers movement, said that the Voice he heard was the kind that “stops you in your tracks and makes your hair stand on end. It came from above me and had an unmistakable air of authority about it. The Voice simply said, ‘This is the mantle of Zechariah.’”1 After three thundering knocks the Voice spoke once again: “James, it is the Lord!” Suddenly James Ryle understood. The “vast purple mantle” that had fallen upon him in a dream was the mantle of a “seer.”

In his book, A Dream Come True, Ryle says the mantle that fell on him was enormous — “more than any one person could handle.”2 According to Ryle, this blind world will soon be enlightened by an “army of seers.”3 Ryle believes that God not only commissioned him directly, but also called upon Vineyard founder John Wimber to pray that he be “released as a seer.” “From that time forward,” says Ryle, “the frequency, scope, accuracy and fulfillment of dreams, visions and prophetic words has been staggering.”4

Ryle recollects many of these “staggering” revelations in a book titled Hippo in the Garden. Perhaps the most significant of these visions was received on August 22, 1989. The Almighty allegedly gave Ryle a dream about football. In the dream, Ryle saw “something like an energy field” encircling the University of Colorado Buffaloes football team. He then heard a voice that said, “This will be their golden season!”5

The next day Ryle shared the dream as well as its interpretation with Bill McCartney, who was then the Colorado coach and who later founded the national Christian men’s group Promise Keepers. Ryle said, “The Lord will now fulfill promises which He has made to you by empowering the players with His Spirit. This will be the golden season!”6 At the end of the golden season, before the championship game, Ryle says, “I felt certain that we would win and be crowned the national champions of college football — we were already firmly locked in the number one position in the polls. I was sure that we would win; my confidence was unshakable!” (emphasis in original).7
Minutes before the national championship game, however, the Lord gave Ryle a tragic revelation through a female buffalo named Ralphie. Via the omen8 of Ralphie’s broken horn, God revealed that the power of His Spirit had departed from the team.9 This time, however, Ryle kept the revelation to himself until after the game.

As he stood stunned in the stadium, contemplating Colorado’s crushing 21 to 6 loss to Notre Dame, the Holy Spirit told Ryle to turn to Isaiah 21:6.10 While the content of Isaiah 21:6 has no correspondence to football games, Ryle says “my curiosity was awakened.”11

After the disappointing ending to the Buffaloes’ golden season God revealed to Ryle that he would “reach out His hand a second time” (Isa. 11:11).12 And, sure enough, the following year, the Colorado Buffaloes were again pitted against Notre Dame in the national championship game. Prior to the game, Ryle once again checked for a sign, using Ralphie’s horns as an omen. This time they were intact, thus Colorado went on to win the national championship of college football. Astonishingly, the omen was confirmed for Ryle by the season win-loss-tie record (11-1-1) that matched the passage (Isaiah 11:11) that the Holy Spirit had prompted him to consult.13

A JACK WITH A LANTERN
While at first blush Ryle’s revelations appear to be solid gold, a closer look exposes them for what they really are — fool’s gold. Ryle claims that God communicated inside information to him via the omen of a buffalo horn, but Scripture clearly denounces any such interpretation of omens (Deut. 18:10).
It is safe to say that when James Ryle alleges that he received “direction from heaven” to read Isaiah 21:6 (after the Colorado Buffaloes lost to Notre Dame 21 to 6), he is merely communicating the delusions of his own mind. We can also be assured that Ryle is presumptuous in alleging that the Holy Spirit revealed to him a year in advance that Colorado would win the national championship of college football by directing him to read an esoteric meaning into Isaiah 11:11.

More than two hundred years ago Jonathan Edwards (1703-175 cool addressed this sort of “Bible Roulette” when he said,

Some that follow impulses and impressions indulge a notion, that they do no other than follow the guidance of God’s word, because the impression is made with a text of Scripture that comes to their mind. But they take that text as it is impressed on their minds, and improve it as a new revelation to all intents and purposes; while the text, as it is in the Bible, implies no such thing, and they themselves do not suppose that any such revelation was contained in it before….

If such things as these are revealed by the impression of these words, it is to all intents a new revelation, not the less because certain words of Scripture are made use of in the case. Here are propositions or truths entirely new, that those words do not contain…wholly different from those contained in the text of Scripture….

This is quite a different thing from the Spirit’s enlightening the mind to understand the words of God, and know what is contained and revealed in them…and to see how they are applicable to our case and circumstances; which is done without any new revelation, only by enabling the mind to understand and apply a revelation already made.14

Rather than indulging impulses and impressions, Edwards advises Christians to “take the Scriptures as our guide.” Without the final standard of Scripture the body of Christ lies open to “woeful delusions and would be exposed without remedy to be imposed on and devoured by its enemies.”15 Edwards implores Christians “to be contented with the divine oracles — that holy pure word of God, which we have in such abundance and clearness”:
Why should we desire to have any thing added to them by impulses….Why should we not rest in that standing rule that God has given to his church, which the apostles teach us (2 Peter 1:12-21) is surer than a voice from heaven?

They who leave the sure word of prophecy — which God has given us a light shining in a dark place — to follow such impressions and impulses, leave the guidance of the polar star to follow a Jack with a lantern.16
Ryle is not alone in leaving “the guidance of the polar star” to follow “a Jack with a lantern.” A host of others have followed in his footsteps.

A GREAT APOSTASY
Ryle’s deceptions are not limited to visionary hoaxes. They extend to revisionary history as well. As Ryle has exchanged God’s enduring revelation for his own erroneous revelations, so, too, he has exchanged historical realities for historical revisionism.

In this, too, Ryle is not alone. In teachings, transcripts, tapes, and television appearances, men like John Arnott (Toronto Airport Vineyard), Guy Chevreau (Catch the Fire), Gerald Coates (Holy Trinity, Brompton), Patrick Dixon (Signs of Revival), and a host of other Counterfeit Revival proponents are actively deceiving devotees by revising history. Their primary ploy is to persuade people that sardonic laughter, spasmodic jerks, slaying in the spirit, and other “enthusiasms” were not only pervasive in the First Great Awakening (the widespread revival of personal faith in Christ that took place in 18th century colonial America) but were promoted by such historical heavyweights as Jonathan Edwards (popularly cited as one of the greatest theological minds produced in America).

One of the most brazen examples of historical revisionism comes from the lips of John Arnott. At an international pastors’ conference, Arnott tried to dupe devotees by denouncing the theology of John Calvin while in the same breath affirming the theology of Jonathan Edwards. Arnott was attempting to refute “cessationists,” whom he believes were “shutting down the Holy Spirit” by questioning the practice of “acting like lions and oxen and eagles and even warriors.” His basic argument was that since “God Himself has no hesitation of comparing Himself to an animal,” we shouldn’t either. Thus, according to Arnott, Calvinists and cessationists would be “far better advised to refer to Jonathan Edwards and his theology on discernment….”17
While Arnott no doubt knew that Edwards was a Calvinist and a cessationist (believing that such supernatural gifts as tongues and prophecy had ceased), he apparently banked on the fact that his followers did not. Arnott, however, is not alone in this deception. Counterfeit Revival “historian” William DeArteaga, for example, uses the Toronto Airport Vineyard as his bully pulpit to simultaneously condemn Calvinism and commend the theology of Jonathan Edwards. DeArteaga compounds the deception by telling devotees that Edwards’s contemporary critic, Charles Chauncey, “ensured the defeat of the Awakening” by “using the assumption of Calvinist theology.”18
In truth, far from using Calvinism to ensure the defeat of the Great Awakening, Charles Chauncey was an Arminian who opposed “the resurgence of Calvinistic theology — especially as preached by Jonathan Edwards.”19

The most disturbing deception of all is that the leaders of the Counterfeit Revival have co-opted one of the church’s true spiritual giants and dishonestly claimed him for their own. In the words of William DeArteaga, “The Lord has already chosen the predominant theologian of this revival. It’s not me! It’s Jonathan Edwards” (emphasis added).20

Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. The theological focus of Jonathan Edwards was on eternal verities such as sin, salvation, and sanctification. In sharp contrast, the temporal fixation of men like John Arnott is on such earthly vanities as sardonic laughter, spasmodic jerks, and being slain in the spirit. While Jonathan Edwards personified a passion for piety, John Arnott personifies a priority for parties. Dr. Nick Needham has well said that anyone who believes that Jonathan Edwards would have approved of this paradigm shift “must surely have kissed a final farewell to his mind.”21

JONATHAN EDWARDS
Leaders of the Counterfeit Revival have appealed to Jonathan Edwards. Thus, to Jonathan Edwards we shall now go. Nowhere is there a more compelling contrast between counterfeit and genuine revival than in Edwards’s manuscript titled The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.22

He identifies nine characteristics that critics seized on to negate the Great Awakening as a genuine work of the Spirit. Edwards draws a clear line of demarcation between Great Awakening and great apostasy. The signs identified by Edwards are so significant that I have alliterated them to make them easy to review and remember.23

Extraordinary Enthusiasms
What the church has been used to, is not a rule by which we are to judge;because there may be new and extraordinary works of God.24
In his book, Catch The Fire, Counterfeit Revival historian Guy Chevreau goes to great lengths to “prove” that the “new and extraordinary works of God” to which Edwards referred are precisely what Chevreau experienced when he first visited the Toronto Airport Vineyard. He confesses that he was “too desperate to be critical”25 when he first encountered the “uncontrollable laughter and inconsolable weeping; violent shaking and falling down; people waving their arms around, in windmill-like motions, or vigorous judo-like chopping with their forearms.”26 Thus, when John Arnott prayed that Chevreau’s wife, Janis, would remain in a drunken stupor for 48 hours, Chevreau did not attempt to intervene. Instead, he proudly proclaimed that Arnott’s prayer had been abundantly answered. For more than two days Janis fell “repeatedly,” was “hysterical with laughter,” and was “unable to walk a straight line.”27 So severe was her spiritual drunkenness that Janis was completely unfit to drive.

On worldwide television Janis witnessed to the “new and extraordinary works of God” by telling Phil Donahue that for four hours she had rolled around under chairs at church. She went on to testify that the very next day she began to “toss hot greasy fish” at parishioners during a very serious dinner meeting. Guy Chevreau (now a teacher at the Toronto Airport Vineyard) spends almost a third of his book attempting to convince readers that these were precisely the kinds of new and “extraordinary enthusiasms” that Edwards defined and defended.

In doing so Chevreau corrupts the clear intention of Edwards’s words. When Edwards spoke of the “new and extraordinary work of God,” he was referring to the Spirit’s “ordinary work of converting sinners, but carried on at certain points in history in an extraordinary way as far as numbers and community-wide consequences were concerned.”28

Chevreau also blurs the distinction between the experiences of his wife and those of the wife of Jonathan Edwards. In clear contrast to the “very flaky”29 beliefs and behavior of Janis Chevreau, Edwards affirms that his wife, Sarah, experienced the glory and grandeur of God.30 Dr. Nick Needham points out that what Jonathan and Sarah Edwards approved of was “the complete mirror-image of such fun-drunk spiritual ‘parties.’ Perhaps Edwards was wrong. Perhaps he was spiritually deficient in his sense of humor. But it is profoundly dishonest to appeal to Edwards’s name to give credibility to a spiritual ethos he would have abhorred with ever fiber of his lofty and reverent soul….”31

While Chevreau couches Edwards’s comments in the context of Counterfeit Revival chaos, in truth his commentary is clearly communicated within the context of Great Awakening conversions. Perhaps this distinction is best personified by the experience of a non-Christian reporter named Mick Brown, who traveled to Toronto on assignment for a secular magazine.
For the most part Brown was singularly unimpressed by what he experienced. He described the sermons as “turgid enough to tax the most devout believer.”32 At one point he even left the spiritually intoxicated gathering for a quick beer in a nearby bar. His account, however, concludes with a startling revelation:

Perhaps it was the heat, or the air of febrile intoxication coursing through the air, but I could feel myself growing giddy.

….I didn’t even see [Pastor John Arnott’s] hand coming as it arced through the air and touched me gently — hardly at all — on the forehead. “And bless this one, Lord….” I could feel a palpable shock running through me, then I was falling backwards, as if my legs had been kicked away from underneath me.

I hit the floor — I swear this is the truth — laughing like a train.33
In a subsequent interview, Brown said, “I’m not and I wasn’t a practicing Christian before going to Toronto, but I’ve always had an interest in all sorts of different religious experience.”34 He went on to say that in his estimation “every culture and every faith expresses an understanding of God, or the divine, in their own particular way, and the divine does not discriminate between different cultures, [or] between different religions.”35
Brown’s account of his Toronto Vineyard experience bears an eerie resemblance to a previous encounter he had with a Hindu avatar named Mother Meera: “I went to see her, took darshan with her. Darshan means (literally) an audience with a teacher, and it was a very powerful experience. What it actually involved was her taking my head in her hands for about a minute or so, and then lifting my head up and holding my gaze for another minute or so. The immediate effect was an extreme warmth on my face, a burning sensation, which lasted for a few hours afterwards….The feeling of euphoria lasted for two or three days.”36

Brown says he did not experience long-term change as the result of either his encounter with Mother Meera or with John Arnott. He didn’t change his reservations about Christianity, nor did it make him think “that Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Red Indian Shamanism or whatever other kind of manifestation of faith could go out with the bath water.” After leaving the Toronto Airport Vineyard Brown was more convinced than ever that Christ was merely “a sort of man, someone through whom God was working.”37
Tragically, after a prolonged visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard, Brown had experienced sardonic laughter but had not encountered a single sermon on salvation. Instead of being saved by the Spirit of the Lord he had merely been slain by the spirit of laughter. As Dr. Needham rightly observed, “There is something slightly sinister about Christians having a self-indulgent spiritual ‘party’ while the world around them is sliding into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. Edwards teaches us that we need to confront the soul-destroying idolatry of entertainment and fun that dominates our society, and appears to be hypnotizing and seducing the Church.”38
Effects on the Body

The misery of hell is doubtless so dreadful, and eternity so vast, that if a person should have a clear apprehension of that misery as it is, it would be more than his feeble frame could bear.39

“One night I was preaching on hell,” boasts Counterfeit Revival leader Rodney Howard-Browne, when suddenly laughter “just hit the whole place. The more I told people what hell was like, the more they laughed.”40 This was not an isolated incident. An associate confirmed Howard-Browne’s account by announcing that as he told his parishioners the story of God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira, “everyone ended up on the floor laughing.”41

Jonathan Edwards provides a completely different perspective. When leaders of the Great Awakening preached on the terrors of hell and impending judgment, people were moved by the Spirit and experienced weakness and weeping. The reality of hell and the brevity of life so engaged their minds that they experienced corresponding effects in their bodies. Rather than being deliberately produced by the laying on of hands or loud shouts of “More, Lord!” these bodily effects were the spontaneous results of a vivid encounter with eternal verities. As Edwards elaborated,

If we should suppose that a person saw himself hanging over a great pit, full of fierce and glowing flames, by a thread that he knew to be very weak, and not sufficient to bear his weight, and knew that multitudes had been in such circumstances before, and that most of them had fallen and perished, and saw nothing within reach, that he could take hold of and save him, what distress would he be in! How ready to think that now the thread was breaking, that now, this minute, he should be swallowed up in those dreadful flames! And would not he be ready to cry out in such circumstances? How much more those that see themselves in this manner hanging over an infinitely more dreadful pit, or held over it in the hand of God, who at the same time they see to be exceedingly provoked! No wonder that the wrath of God when manifested but a little to the soul, overbears human strength (emphases in original).42

Edwards made it crystal clear that a true valuation of the judgment of God and the terror of hell produces such powerful inner emotions that corresponding effects on the body are only natural.
Likewise, those who get even a glimpse of the glory and grandeur of God may well also experience effects in their bodies. Edwards explained, “A true sense of the glorious excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his wonderful dying love, and the exercise of a truly spiritual love and joy, should be such as very much to overcome the bodily strength.”43
The effects on the body described by men like Jonathan Edwards were never random or ridiculous but were the result of real spiritual awakening. The effects on the body produced through men like Rodney Howard-Browne are largely the result of sociopsychological manipulation (see Part Four of this series).

Leaders of the Counterfeit Revival proudly promote bodily effects such as sardonic laughter, spasmodic jerks, and “surfing in the spirit” and perceive preaching as virtually pointless. As Rodney Howard-Browne acknowledges, “As to what you’re preaching on, it’s almost irrelevant.”44 In sharp contrast, leaders of the Great Awakening believed that powerful preaching on sin, salvation, and sanctification was paramount. Again, Dr. Nick Needham poignantly proclaims it: “The idea that true spiritual joy can be expressed by laughter, or by any kind of lightness (what we might call fun or clowning), has never had a more determined opponent than Jonathan Edwards. Those Toronto apologists who appeal to him to justify such modern-day phenomena are either speaking out of a profound ignorance, because they have not troubled to read Edwards at all, or are irresponsibly and deceptively misrepresenting Edwards’s clear and forceful teaching on the subject.”45

Endorsements
When Christ’s kingdom came, by that remarkable pouring out of the Spirit in the apostles’ days, it occasioned a great stir every where.46
“The fire is blazing out of control,”47 boasted John Arnott. The “world-wide spread” is so dramatic that “opposition to this move of God is becoming very much like a fly on an elephant.”48 Despite the fact that “tens of thousands of pastors”49 and hundreds of thousands of participants have been impacted, Arnott contends we haven’t seen anything yet: “We are currently in a time similar to the ministry of John the Baptist and will soon be coming into a time resembling the ministry of Jesus where powerful signs, wonders and miracles will take place.”50

Arnott’s words are a common refrain among leaders of the Counterfeit Revival. Rick Joyner goes so far as to prophesy that the “faithful will soon walk in unprecedented power and authority. In the near future we will not be looking back at the early church with envy because of the great exploits of those days, but all will be saying that He certainly did save His best wine for last. The most glorious times in all of history have now come upon us. You who have dreamed of one day being able to talk with Peter, John and Paul, are going to be surprised to find that they have all been waiting to talk to you!”51

Leaders of the Counterfeit Revival cite the widespread acceptance of their movement as proof that it is a work of the Spirit. Leaders of the Great Awakening did not. While Jonathan Edwards acknowledged that the outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles caused a great stir, he resisted the notion that the expansion of a movement was an endorsement from God. If size, scope, and spread were validations for a religious movement, one would be compelled to accept the counterfeit Christ of the New Age movement.

Edwards knew full well that the record of history bore eloquent testimony to the fact that a great apostasy can spread as rapidly as a great awakening. In the days of Athanasius (295-373) the Arian apostasy52 spread so swiftly that it threatened to pervert the Christian church into a cultic confederation. The endorsement of Arianism by the emperor escalated the spread of this egregious error throughout the empire. Athanasius, however, stood against the tide. While the world stood against Athanasius, Athanasius stood against the world.

Esoteric Imaginations
It is no wonder that many persons do not well distinguish between that which is imaginary and that which is intellectual and spiritual; and that they are apt to lay too much weight on the imaginary part, and are most ready to speak of that in the account they give of their experiences, especially persons of less understanding and of distinguishing capacity.53

In his book, A Dream Come True, James Ryle characterizes a dream or a vision as “a puzzle waiting to be solved, a promise waiting to be realized, or a premonition waiting to happen.”54 To validate his “peculiar fascination,” Ryle turns to a priest and Jungian analyst named Morton Kelsey (a devotee of occult practices) who describes Jesus Christ and his disciples as shamans (sorcerers).

Ryle quotes Kelsey as saying that after a 10-year study on dreams and visions, “I discovered that my dreams were wiser than my well-tuned rational mind….These strange messengers of the night offered suggestions on how to find my way out of my lostness.”55 Ryle dismisses those who disagree with this as “arrogant and ignorant.”56

Rather than dismissing dissenters, Ryle should have warned devotees of the dangers inherent in Kelsey’s world view. Kelsey believes that “almost all Christians who were true disciples were something like shamans in the style of their master.”57 As he put it, “Jesus not only used these powers [of the shaman] Himself but He passed the same powers of superhuman knowledge, healing and exorcism on to his followers.”58

Kelsey not only recasts Christ in the image of a shaman but he turns Christians on to such committed occultists as Carlos Castaneda (dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as one of the “godfathers of the New Age movement”59). This despite the fact that Castaneda classifies the art of dreaming as the most vital method of the sorcerer’s armory and also the most dangerous. After indulging in this practice for many years, Castaneda recalls, “In my daily state I was nearly an idiot, and in the second attention [altered state of consciousness] I was a lunatic.” 60

Ironically, while Bill McCartney enthusiastically endorses the practices and principles of James Ryle, Castaneda warns devotees of the dangers inherent in the world of visions and dreams. From his vantage point as a New Age guru, Castaneda writes, “Everything in the sorcerer’s path is a matter of life or death, but in the path of dreaming, this matter is enhanced a hundred fold…that’s why you have to go into their realm exactly as if you were venturing into a war zone.” 61 As personified by the life of James Ryle, once one is immersed in the world of dreams and visions, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from fantasy.

In clear contrast, Jonathan Edwards was convinced that esoteric imaginations are at best human hallucinations and at worst demonic deceptions. He stood fast against those who attempted to elevate their esoteric experiences to the status of divine revelation. As Edwards explained, “Some are ready to interpret such things wrong, and to lay too much weight on them, as prophetical visions, divine revelations, and sometimes significations from heaven of what shall come to pass.”62
Edwards further explains that imaginary ideas are the natural byproduct of a powerful religious experience. As he put it, “Such is our nature, that we cannot think of things invisible, without a degree of imagination. I dare appeal to any man, of the greatest powers of mind, whether he is able to fix his thoughts on God, or Christ, or the things of another world, without imaginary ideas attending his meditations.”63 Edwards goes on to warn his hearers of supposing that their imaginations are “of the same nature with the visions of the prophets, or St. Paul’s rapture into paradise.”64

Unlike the oracles of James Ryle, the oratory of Jonathan Edwards always focused followers on such biblical realities as the felicities of heaven and the fires of hell. This is precisely what happened when Edwards preached the sermon for which he is most noted, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His oratory aroused in his audience visions of what it would be like to experience an eternity away from the grace and goodness of God. Thus, far from their visions being esoteric imaginations they were instead eternal illuminations.  

[Garland-Green]

Examples
Not only weak and ignorant people are much influenced by example,but also those that make the greatest boast of strength of reason.65

Carol Arnott claims the Almighty spoke to her husband saying, “I want you to hang around people that have an anointing.” According to Carol, God directed them to a man named Benny Hinn, with whom John had “ministered” in the early years. Carol heeded the Word of the Lord and began “to hang around” with Hinn. As a result, she says, “I just got absolutely buzzing with the anointing of God.”66 According to the Arnotts, Hinn prayed for them some “fifty times.” And the effects of his example are today being experienced around the globe.

Jonathan Edwards was fully aware of the contagious power of example. Thus, he reminds us of Paul’s instruction to young Timothy: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Tim. 4: 12-13; emphasis added). Edwards insisted that Scripture was the principle means through which the power of example is made effectual: “Even the sacraments have no effect but by the Word. And so it is that example becomes effectual. For all that is visible to the eye is unintelligible and vain without the Word of God to instruct and guide the mind.”67
One can only imagine what Edwards might have said had he encountered the example of Benny Hinn slaying supporters in the spirit by casting his coat at a crowd or blowing on believers. It boggles the mind to think of how he would have reacted had he witnessed Stephanie Wimber leading by example as she jerked spasmodically in what her father fondly referred to as the “chicken walk.” While Edwards clearly maintained that it was “agreeable to Scripture that persons should be influenced by one another’s good example” he would have surely resisted such ghastly examples with every “fiber of his lofty and reverent soul.”

Excessive Zeal
Lukewarmness in religion is abominable and zeal an excellent grace; yet above all other Christian virtues, this needs to be strictly watched and searched; for it is that with which corruption, and particularly pride and human passion is exceedingly apt to mix unobserved.68

Counterfeit Revival leader Larry Randolph, speaking at the Toronto Airport Vineyard, declared that there are only “two groups of people in the church today.” He categorized them as “those that are affected by what God’s doing and those that are offended by what God is doing. There is not a lot of neutral ground. The neutral ground is dissipating by the hour. You can’t stand in the middle any more and say ‘Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s God, maybe it’s not.’ You’re going to get rolled over.”69

Counterfeit Revival leaders Bob Jones and James Ryle agree. They predict that the party God is presently throwing for His people will soon give way to a bloody civil war. On one side of the war will be “blues” who readily accept new revelations from God. On the other will be “grays” who rely solely on the revelation God has already given. According to Rick Joyner, the grays (whom he labels as “spiritually ruthless and cruel”70) will “either be converted or removed from their place of influence in the church.”71

Joyner dogmatically declares that both “believers and unbelievers alike will think that it is the end of Christianity as we know it, and it will be.”72 When the “grays” are finally eliminated there is going to be “an entirely new definition of Christianity.”73

While leaders of the Counterfeit Revival predict a great battle in which those who stand against them will be eliminated, Jonathan Edwards warned against just such a “holy war.” He made it clear that even in a cause as crucial as the Reformation, kindness rather than killing should be the order of the day. As he sadly reflected, even “in that glorious revival of religion, at the reformation, zeal in many instances appeared in a very improper severity, and even a degree of persecution.”74 In place of excessive zealousness that predicts a bloodbath in which those who refuse to accept new revelations are eliminated, the life of Jonathan Edwards personified the maxim, “In essentials unity; in nonessentials liberty; and in all things charity.”

End-Time Revelations
However great a spiritual influence may be, it is not to be expected that the Spirit of God should be given now in the same manner as to the apostles, infallibly to guide them in points of Christian doctrine, so that what they taught might be relied on as a rule to the Christian church.75

In a vision concerning the end-time harvest, Jesus allegedly revealed to Rick Joyner that there would be “a great reaping among the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and other sects in which there is a doctrinal mixture.” Jesus went on to point out that these sects would “be won by love, not truth.”76 According to Joyner, Jesus is about to “enormously increase” our understanding on even such basic truths as “salvation and being born again.”77 He even predicts that the end-time church will rise above differences in doctrine and “worship Him in unity.”78 Ominously, he warns that anyone who resists this new “tide of unity” based on love rather than doctrine will be disqualified or removed from leadership: “Some who are presently in leadership that resist this move will become so hardened they will become opposers and persecutors of the church. Others will be changed and repent of their hardness of heart, even though, in some cases, their resistance to the Holy Spirit will have disqualified them from leadership. This growing tide of unity in the church will reveal the true nature of those in leadership.”79

Counterfeit Revival historian William DeArteaga goes even further. He denounces those who make essential Christian doctrine a prerequisite for unity. According to DeArteaga, such people are guilty of “Pharisaism,” which he defines as “the heresy of orthodoxy.”80 He explains that the “core problem with the Pharisee is that he cannot recognize the present work of the Holy Spirit.”81

One could imagine Jonathan Edwards not only turning over in his grave at such bizarre notions but going into high rotation. Pharisaism cannot be correctly defined as orthodoxy, nor should orthodoxy be denounced as heresy. Edwards would have blanched at the mere mention of unity at the expense of essential Christian doctrine.

While Rick Joyner seemingly sees no need for the absolute, external, objective standard of Scripture by which to test his end-time visions, Jonathan Edwards was firmly committed to the principle of sola scriptura. He warned that even some godly men during the Great Awakening had been deluded by imagining that their impulses and impressions were infallible revelations: “Many godly persons have undoubtedly in this and other ages, exposed themselves to woeful delusions, by an aptness to lay too much weight on impulses and impressions, as if they were immediate revelations from God, to signify something future, or to direct them where to go, and what to do.”82

Erroneous Judgments
And it is particularly observable, that in times of great pouring out of the Spirit to revive religion in the world, a number of those who for a while seemed to partake in it,have fallen off into whimsical and extravagant errors, and gross enthusiasm, boasting of high degrees of spirituality and perfection, censuring and condemning others as carnal.83

James Ryle likens those who speak out against the “extravagant errors” of the Counterfeit Revival to those “who crucified Jesus Christ.” He not only condemns critics as carnal, but characterizes them as the corrupt Pharisees of Christ’s day. Not content to cast judgment upon their eternal destiny, he judges their present motivations as well: “What motivates them to tear down another church? The answer is pride, jealousy, fear, hatred or ignorance. Take your pick. You can be sure one of these factors is at the heart of this present contention.”84

Likewise, TBN president Paul Crouch does not hesitate in “censuring and condemning” those who criticize the false teachings that are regularly featured on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. His judgment is swift and severe: “I think they’re damned and on their way to hell; and I don’t think there’s any redemption for them.” He ominously warns critics to “get out of God’s way. Quit blocking God’s bridges, or God’s gonna shoot you if I don’t.”85 Like Crouch, Toronto Airport Vineyard pastor Marc Dupont warns critics of the Counterfeit Revival that their fate may well be as severe as death:

There is a judgment that’s coming against many leaders and against the church that despises what God is doing in the nineties….I believe judgment this year is radically increasing, especially leaders that are going to stand in a strong Pharisaical stance and are going to attack what God is doing….I believe that many leaders who are fighting what the Spirit of God is doing and saying, God is going to take them out of ministry. I believe some of them, I know this isn’t a new revelation, other people have said this, but I do believe that it’s true, that God is actually going to be taking some leaders home to heaven, rather than to continue to allow them to mislead God’s people.86
Jonathan Edwards cautioned against just such judgments. He pointed out that even though Judas was a devil “he had been treated by Jesus himself, in all external things, as if he had truly been a disciple.”87 While we may rightly judge a person’s doctrines and deeds in light of Scripture (Acts 17:11; 1 Thess. 5:21-22; Gal. 1:6-10; 2 Cor. 11:4ff), we must never pass judgment on their motives or eternal destiny. That is the sole prerogative of God, who alone can search our hearts and who alone has the power to sentence one to hell. As Edwards said of Judas:

Though Christ knew him, yet he did not then clothe himself with the character of omniscient Judge, and searcher of hearts, but acted the part of a minister of the visible church; (for he was his Father’s minister); and therefore rejected him not, till he had discovered himself by his scandalous practice; thereby giving an example to guides and rulers of the visible church, not to take it upon them to act the part of searcher of hearts, but to be influenced in their administrations by what is visible and open.88

Eudaemonism
The main work of ministers is to preach the gospel. 89
During the first anniversary celebration of the “Toronto Blessing,” a pastor stood up and asked Randy Clark why the present revival, unlike historical revivals, had not placed a strong emphasis on the holiness of God and the depravity of man. Clark responded by saying that in the current revival God decided to throw a party for his people because they “already feel so icky about themselves.”90 Like other leaders of the Counterfeit Revival, Clark seems convinced that God’s present priority is entertainment rather than evangelism. In sharp contrast to Jonathan Edwards, he seems to believe that God’s priority is to make us happy as opposed to making us holy.
J. I. Packer sums up such notions with the word eudaemonism, which is the “basic principle of hot tub religion.”91 Webster defines eudaemonism as the doctrine of happiness, or the system of ethics that considers the moral value of actions in terms of their ability to produce happiness. In stark contrast to Randy Clark, Packer bemoans the fact that this is “a false principle. It loses sight of the place of pain in sanctification whereby God trains his children to share his holiness (see Hebrews 12: 5-11).”92

Leaders of the Counterfeit Revival believe “this recent move of the Spirit is the Lord romancing His church” (emphasis added).93 Leaders of the Great Awakening believed that the move of the Spirit was the Lord reforming His church. As in our day, 18th century Christianity had assumed the barnacles of the Enlightenment and had come to believe that the pursuit of happiness is the loftiest human goal. In his book titled The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll points out that “the intellectual achievement of Jonathan Edwards was his refusal to admit that these assumptions were in fact the starting points of thought.” Edwards “resisted the idea that the pursuit of happiness was the highest purpose of human life.”94 Unlike Randy Clark, he was convinced that the reason the church needed reformation was not because Christians “feel so icky about themselves” but rather because they don’t feel icky enough. Rhetorically, he asks, “Is it really grievous to you, that you have fallen, or do fall into sin; and are you ready, after the example of holy Job, to abhor yourself for it, and repent in dust and ashes, and like Paul to lament your wretchedness, and pray to be delivered from sin, as you would from a body of death?”95 If you do, then, according to Edwards, “you have the evidence that your grace is of the kind that tends to holy practice, and to growth.”96

It is the height of irony that Counterfeit Revival leaders compare themselves to Great Awakening revivalists, who were criticized, not for serving intoxicating Holy Ghost laughter, but for “insisting very much on the terrors of God’s holy law, and that with a great deal of pathos and earnestness.”97 Far from discrediting the Great Awakening as a work of God, Edwards made it clear that warnings about the reality of hell were an indispensable part of proclaiming the gospel. Without knowing how desperately “icky” we really are, we will never fully grasp the greatness of our salvation. As Edwards passionately proclaimed:

If there be really a hell of such dreadful and never-ending torments, as is generally supposed, of which multitudes are in great danger…then why is it not proper for those who have the care of souls to take great pains to make men sensible of it?….If I am in danger of going to hell, I should be glad to know as much as possibly I can of the dreadfulness of it. If I am very prone to neglect due care to avoid it, he does me the best kindness, who does most to represent to me the truth of the case, that sets forth my misery and danger in the liveliest manner.98

The Paradigm Shift
Nowhere is the paradigm shift that has taken place in Christianity and our culture more obvious than in the contrast between the ministry of Jonathan Edwards and the message of the leaders of today’s Counterfeit Revival. The ministry of Jonathan Edwards was characterized by dynamic expositional preaching. The message of the Counterfeit Revival is characterized by delusional experiential pandering.

While the Great Awakening was an era of exoteric exposition, the Counterfeit Revival is an era of esoteric experience. Today thousands are being deceived into believing that reality can be transformed into a personal experience of enlightenment — a transformation of consciousness that initiates them into true spirituality. The very thing that Edwards wanted people to be saved from is what Counterfeit Revival leaders are inducing people to indulge in.*This article is adapted from Hank Hanegraaff’s book, Counterfeit Revival, published by Word Publishing, April 1997. To order, call toll-free at (88 cool 7000-CRI.

NOTES
1James Ryle, A Dream Come True (Orlando: Creation House, 1995), 218.
2Ibid., 218-19, 224-25.
3Ibid., 229.
4James Ryle, Hippo in the Garden (Orlando: Creation House, 1993), 13.
5Ibid., 181.
6Ibid.
7Ibid., 182.
8The word “omen” is defined as “an occurrence or phenomenon believed to portend a future event.” (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. [Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1994].)
9Ryle, Hippo, 182-83.
10Ryle didn’t worry about taking the verse in its historical context because he believes that while “the verse may, in fact, be taken completely out of its historical context, it nevertheless has direct bearing on some immediate situation we’re facing.” (Ibid., 77.)
11 Ibid., 182.
12Ibid., 183.
13Ibid.
14Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1, ed. Edward Hickman (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974: reprint of 1834 edition), 404.
15Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, ed. Edward Hickman (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974: reprint of 1834 edition), 260.
16The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1, 404 and vol. 2, 275.
17John Arnott, “Pastor’s Meeting,” Toronto Airport Vineyard, 19 October 1994; audiotape transcript.
18William DeArteaga, Quenching the Spirit (Altamonte Springs, FL: Creation House Publishers, 1992), 52.
19J. D. Douglas, Philip W. Comfort, and Donald Mitchell, eds, Who’s Who in Christian History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1992), 156.
20William DeArteaga, “What Is Heresy?” Toronto Airport Vineyard, 13 October 1994; audiotape transcript.
21Nick Needham, Was Jonathan Edwards the Founding Father of the Toronto Blessing? Part One – Phenomena Which Do Not Prove That the Spirit Is Present (Welling, Kent, England: Nick Needham [self-published], 1995), 20.
22Jonathan Edwards, “The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 257-77.23My thanks to Dr. Nick Needham for sharing with me his comparison of the Edwards essay with the Counterfeit Revival. Although our analyses are substantially different, they are complementary and it is to him that I owe the inspiration for making my own comparison.
24The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 261.
25Guy Chevreau, Catch the Fire (London: Marshall Pickering [HarperCollins] 1994), 12-13.
26Ibid., 13.
27Ibid., 13.
28Needham, 50.
29 Chevreau, Catch the Fire, 12.
30Edwards described his wife’s experience in this way: “Transporting views and rapturous affections were not attended with any enthusiastic disposition to follow impulses, or any supposed prophetical revelations; nor have they been observed to be attended with any appearance of spiritual pride, but very much of a contrary disposition, an increase of humility and meekness, and a disposition of honor to prefer others.” (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1, 376.)
31Needham, 20.
32Mick Brown, “Unzipper Heaven, Lord,” Telegraph Magazine, 3 December 1994, 30.
33Ibid.
34Mike Taylor, “What Happened Next?” Evangelicals Now, February 1995 (transcript, 1).
35Ibid,. 2.
36Ibid.
37Ibid., 3-4.
38Needham, 20.
39The Works of Jonathan Edwards. vol. 2, 261.
40Julia Duin, “Praise the Lord and Pass the New Wine,” Charisma, August 1994, 24.
41Julia Duin, “An Evening with Rodney Howard-Browne,” Christian Research Journal, Winter 1995, 44.
42The Works of Jonathan Edwards. vol. 2, 261.
43Ibid.
44Duin, “Evening,” 44; and John Arnott, Discovery Church, Orlando, Florida, evening service, 29 January 1995; audiotape transcript.45Needham, 11.
46The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol 2, 262.
47Arnott, The Father’s Blessing (Orlando: Creation House Publishers, 1995), 230.
48John Arnott, “Moving into Increasing Anointing,” Spread the Fire, May/June 1995.
49Arnott, Father’s Blessing, 220.
50Arnott, “Moving.”
51Rick Joyner, The Harvest (Pineville, NC: Morningstar Publications, 1990), 9.
52Arius was a presbyter to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and the founder of the heresy commonly referred to as Arianism. Arius taught that there was a time when the Son did not exist, since He was created by the eternal Father and as such was the highest of all creatures, but did not have the same nature or essence as the Creator.
53The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 263.
54Ryle, Dream, 15.
55Ibid., 15.
56Ibid.
57Morton Kelsey, The Christian and the Supernatural (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1976), 92-95; as quoted in John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers), 200..
58Ibid.
59As quoted in Ankerberg and Weldon, 206.
60Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), 125.
61Ibid., 110.
62The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 263.
63Ibid.
64Ibid.
65Ibid, 264.
66John Arnott, The Love of God, Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Mission Viejo, CA, 17 July 1995; Tape 621.
67The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 264.
68Ibid.
69Larry Randolph, “Renewal and Revival Today,” Toronto Airport Vineyard, 18 November 1994; audiotape transcript.
70Morning Star Prophetic Bulletin, May 1996.
71Ibid.
72Ibid.
73Ibid.
74The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 265.
75Ibid.
76Joyner, 96.
77Ibid., 133.
78Ibid., 134.
79Ibid., 15-16.
80William DeArteaga, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 13 October 1994; audiotape transcript.
81DeArteaga.
82The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 265.
83Ibid.
84Comments made by James Ryle subsequent to his appearance on John Leoffler’s radio program Steel on Steel, February 1995; e-mail transcript.
85Paul Crouch, Praise-a-Thon program, TBN, 2 April 1991.
86Marc Dupont, “The Father’s Heart and the Prophetic,” Toronto Airport Vineyard, 16 November 1994; audiotape transcript; and Mark Dupont, “Prophetic School, Part 3,” Pastor’s Meeting, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 16 November 1994; audiotape transcript.
87The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 265.
88Ibid.
89The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 266.
90Randy Clark, Catch The Fire, Toronto Airport Vineyard, 14 October 1994; audiotape transcript.
91J. I. Packer, Hot Tub Religion (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1987), 75.
92Ibid.
93Arnott, Father’s Blessing, 175.
94Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994), 77.
95Jonathan Edwards, in Clyde E. Fant, Jr., and William M. Pinson, Jr., A Treasury of Great Preaching, vol. 3 (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1995), 101.
96Ibid., 102.
97The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 265.98Ibid., 265-66.

Source  

[Garland-Green]

The Counterfeit Revival (Part Three)
Article ID: DP244-3 | By: Hank Hanegraaff

Summary
While promoters of the Pensacola Outpouring allege nearly two million participants to date, an examination of the revival reveals its serious distortions of biblical Christianity, concluding the movement is simply the latest outbreak in a long history of Counterfeit Revival. Characterized by an overemphasis on subjective experience in opposition to objective tests for truth, nonbiblical spiritual practices, Scripture twisting, and false and exaggerated claims, the Pensacola Outpouring threatens countless believers and depicts to the world a tainted stripe of Christianity. In post-Christian times as these, evangelicals more than ever need to return to the basic teachings and practices of the historic, biblical Christian faith.

What is today touted as the Pensacola Outpouring had its genesis on Father’s Day in 1995. In recalling the events of that day, John Kilpatrick, pastor of the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, said he suddenly heard what he first thought was a mighty wind but later discovered was a river of the Holy Ghost. The force of the river was so pronounced that Kilpatrick claimed, “My ankles flipped over.” After being pulled up to the platform by his pantlegs, Kilpatrick shouted, “Folks, this is it! Get in! Revival’s come!” He goes on to exclaim:

And man, when I said that it was like dynamite exploding [explosion sound]. And it looked like somebody had taken a machine gun and mowed people down. Even out in their pews. Even out in their pews [sic]. I mean, they were falling out of the pews, they were falling down between the seats, they were falling out up here without anybody even touching them. A little like [machine gun fire sound], you know, somebody just cut ‘em down.

Man, I hit this floor up here. And evangelist [Steve Hill] saw me up here by the pulpit, and I was looking about half drunk, you know. And he just waved his hand like that and said, “More, Lord.” And I said, “Whap!” And I hit the floor and I stayed there from 12:30 to 4 o’clock….I was laying there thinking, you know. It felt like I weighed 10,000 pounds. It didn’t feel like you was pinned to the floor or nothing like that, but you’re just so heavy. Just felt so heavy. It felt wonderful.

I thought, “Dear God, whatever this is, don’t take it off of me.”

But one of our worship team ladies that fell in my arms—long after revival broke out a lady came up to me during the revival and she said, “Brother Kilpatrick, your wife is so sweet. She sings so good in that worship team.”
And I thought, “Worship team?”

She said, “You know, the blackheaded one that was laying in your arms up there on the platform.”
I said, “That’s not my wife.”
She said, “It’s not?”
She just fell out under the fire too and just happened to land in my arms. And so I said, “Lord, this don’t smell like Brenda here.”1

The trance state John Kilpatrick experienced on that Father’s Day in 1995 was merely a harbinger of things to come. As the next two years rolled on, his followers would experience manifestations ranging from sardonic laughter to spasmodic jerks.

One man in particular experienced such unusual convulsions on the platform in Pensacola that he became the center of attention. When Steve Hill (the evangelist credited by Kilpatrick as a primary catalyst for the Pensacola Outpouring) realized that he was losing his audience, he turned to the man and said:

Now some of you are watching this young man up here. I want to tell you exactly what he is doing, and then I want you to turn your eyes from him. He’s interceding for your soul. Some of you are on the verge — it’s like we’ve got you with a thread and you’re hanging over hell. It’s intercession in the deepest form right here. It’s moanings and groanings, words that can’t be uttered. God’s put it on him. You can’t tell me God doesn’t love you, friend. You can’t tell me God doesn’t love you when He will stricken[sic] another young man who loves God with all his heart, cause him to fall to the ground and experience the moanings and groanings and the birth pains. He’s giving birth to you, friend. He’s giving spiritual birth to you. He’s dying for you right now. He’s dying that you might have life.2

Pensacola promoters claim that “in less than two years Evangelist Steve Hill has won hundreds of thousands to Christ.”3 Hill identifies two out of the “hundreds of thousands” as alleged drug dealers. As reported on the Brownsville web site, “Police officers had arrested three men in the Brownsville area for suspected drug dealing. For some reason, the police officers brought these men to one of our revival services instead of jail. Two of the three men responded to the altar call and were saved.”4

Not only does Hill assert that police officers have brought suspected drug dealers to the revival instead of to jail, but also he claims that congressmen are weeping under the power of God in Pensacola. Hill states,

We’re having politicians come in here now. Congressmen. I’m talking about Washington DCers are coming into this place now. It’s getting serious. Would you say that with me? It’s getting serious. When it gets to Washington, it’s getting serious. One of the congressmen that was with us from up north, his statement was this — I believe he made it to Charlie, or somebody — He said, “I’m bringing back 12.” So we proclaim that in a very short while our congress, our senate is ablaze with the power of the gospel, that they’re on fire! That they’re on fire with the power of the gospel, that their lives are changed and transformed. Those of you that have that kind of doubt, would you open your eyes and watch what’s happening? You still can’t see it. We’re telling you, we’ve already had them here. The Congressmen are here. They’re weeping under the power of God. They’re already here. We’re not dreaming. They’ve already been here.5

In addition, Pensacola promoters proclaim that they are having an impact on crime in Pensacola. They point out that “crime in the city of Pensacola had dropped off significantly,” and that “the driving force behind the declining crime rate” is “the revival.”6

Pensacola spin doctors use salvation statistics, converted congressmen, and crime conditions to draw a distinction between the “Toronto Blessing” and the “Pensacola Outpouring.” Michael Brown, an apologist for Pensacola, has gone so far as to deny any relationship between the two: “The bottom line is that there is no formal or informal relationship between Toronto and Pensacola, and the spirit and thrust of the meetings are very different.”7
One of the most disturbing deceptions of all is that Counterfeit Revival leaders like Brown have co-opted Jonathan Edwards and dishonestly claimed him for their own. Brown demeans my book Counterfeit Revival for a lack of serious scholarship regarding Edwards and cites unnamed “Edwards scholars” assisting on Yale University’s project, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, to lend academic credibility to his criticisms.

SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION
Let’s take a closer look at a small sampling of Pensacola fabrications masquerading as facts.

Fabrication: “Police officers had arrested three men in the Brownsville area for suspected drug dealing. For some reason, the police officers brought these men to one of our revival services instead of jail. Two of the three men responded to the altar call and were saved.”

Fact: While salvation statistics vary wildly from source to source,8 the men referred to above are two of the “hundreds of thousands” who were supposedly saved as a result of the “Pensacola Outpouring.”9 However, the Pensacola Sheriff’s Department has stated unequivocally that this did not happen and, moreover, that it could not happen.10 When Pensacola promoters were confronted with this fabrication, they promised to remove it from their web site.11 Sadly, however, they continue to circulate this fabrication as a testimony to the authenticity of the “Pensacola Outpouring.”12

Fabrication: “We’re having politicians come in here now. Congressmen….So we proclaim that in a very short while our congress, our senate is ablaze with the power of the gospel…that their lives are changed and transformed….We’ve already had them here….They’re weeping under the power of God.”

Fact: Despite Steve Hill’s dogmatic declaration that congressmen are in Pensacola “weeping under the power of God,” he has not provided a shred of evidence to support his claim. His proclamation that congressmen will be changed and the Senate ablaze with the power of the gospel is at best an unrealized fantasy.13

Fabrication: “Crime in the city of Pensacola had dropped off significantly….The driving force behind the declining crime rate [is] the revival.”

Fact: According to the Pensacola Police Department, this widely circulated story has no basis in reality. As the police pointed out, total crimes have, in fact, risen from 83,849 in 1995 to 85,581 in 1996 (a total increase of 1,732 crimes). “Forcible sex” was up from 52 to 69; “assault” was up from 623 to 656; “drug possession” was up from 647 to 660.14 As Assistant Chief Jerry Potts reported, “Contrary to a widely circulating rumor, crime rates in Pensacola have not decreased dramatically.”15 By way of contrast, as reported in the Orange County Register, 13 March 1997, the crime rate in Orange County, California (home of the Christian Research Institute) has dropped at least 23 percent.16

Fabrication: “There is no formal or informal relationship between Toronto and Pensacola, and the spirit and thrust of the meetings are very different.”
Fact: First, in sharp contrast to this denial by Pensacola’s Michael Brown, evangelist Steve Hill confessed, “We’ve received a lot from the Toronto church on how to pray with people and care for folks…we model a lot of what is going on here from them.”17

Furthermore, Pastor Maul Ely, speaking from the pulpit of the Brownsville Assembly of God, declared to raucous applause that no less an authority than God Himself had specifically revealed to him a direct connection between the “Toronto Blessing” and the “Pensacola Outpouring”:
The Lord said, “Son, draw the tabernacle on a piece of paper.” So I just opened up my notebook and I drew the tabernacle. Nice rectangular lines.
And the Lord said, “Now, put there at the western side of the tabernacle,” He said, “write down Azusa.”

I said, “Okay.” How many know you need to do what He tells you to do, whether you understand it or not?
He said, “Now, go all the way across to the eastern part of the tabernacle, the entrance,” and He said, “write Cleveland, Tennessee.” So I wrote Cleveland, Tennessee.
He said, “Now, go to the northern side and write Toronto.” Oh, oh! I feel it.
He said, “Now, go to the southern side of the tabernacle and write down Brownsville.” You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!
He said, “Now, draw a line from Azusa to Cleveland, Tennessee”—how many know that the first wave of the Holy Spirit came to America started on the western coast and went across to the eastern coast? — He said, “Now draw a line from the northern side at Toronto to Brownsville”….He said, “The lines that you have drawn have made a cross across the tabernacle.” And He said, “Now look at America. I have made a spiritual cross across America.” And He said, “I want My people to realize that it’s in your weakness of burying your cross that the church becomes powerful.” 18

Finally, it is significant to note that prior to Father’s Day 1995, Brenda Kilpatrick and staff members of the Brownsville Assembly of God had made pilgrimages to Toronto and received “an impartation.” In addition, Pensacola revivalists, such as Steve Hill, have candidly acknowledged that they have been prayed for by John Arnott in Toronto and that Arnott and members of the Toronto staff have been to Pensacola.19

Fabrication: Hanegraaff misused Edwards’s material to suit his own purposes. Brown, conversely, has consulted scholars working on the Yale University project, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, who have lent their academic credibility to his critique of Counterfeit Revival.

Fact: On the one hand, since Brown does not name these Yale scholars it is impossible to evaluate this claim. On the other hand, Dr. Michael Bowman, the coordinator of another program concerning Edwards’s works, STEP: The Edwards Project (which is releasing the complete works of Edwards on CD-ROM), was concerned enough about Michael Brown’s lack of scholarship and fabrications to release the following statement:

Having just finished Hanegraaff’s Counterfeit Revival, I do not see any inaccuracy in his review of Edwards’ Distinguishing Marks20 treatise. Overall, I felt that Hanegraaff’s analysis was right on. Edwards did not condone excesses, but felt that they could be present in true revival. Edwards realized that the remorse that the repentant individuals feel, when they realize what they have been saved from, can occasionally lead to emotional outbursts. The bizarre and “drunken” behavior in the “counterfeit revival” movement has nothing to do with repentance. What concerns me the most about this issue is that mainstream Christianity does not seem to seriously and forcefully condemn this movement!21

Under the guise of academic credibility Brown not only grossly misrepresents Jonathan Edwards but he also grossly misrepresents me. While space and time do not permit a complete accounting of his deceptions, let’s take a moment to look at how he misleads unsuspecting readers in a new book22 in which he confronts the critics of the Pensacola Outpouring and impugns the research and reasoning of my book, Counterfeit Revival.

Brown accuses me of committing the logical fallacy of guilt by association, suggesting that I implicate John Arnott as being a prosperity teacher by virtue of his association with Benny Hinn.23 The reality is in Counterfeit Revival I never indict Arnott on those grounds at all, let alone through guilt by association with Hinn. What I actually write is that Hinn “has had a profound impact on such Counterfeit Revival leaders as John Arnott,”24 which is true since Hinn had been increasingly asked to pray over the Arnotts after John was allegedly told by God to “hang around people that have an anointing.”25 I do, however, expose Hinn’s health and wealth teaching proclivities, offering substantive quotes by Hinn as evidence.26 Curiously, Brown then accuses me of indicting Hinn based on an out-of-date quote reflecting a view that Hinn allegedly repented of long ago. Brown fails to acknowledge that I provided a 1996 quote of Hinn in addition to an older quote to substantiate that Hinn has taught and continues to teach a health and wealth message.27 Moreover, Brown ignores the fact that Hinn continues to market books that promote a prosperity gospel.

Brown also accuses me of exhibiting a “lack of serious scholarship.” The following is what he refers to as a “representative” example. Brown states, “On page 269, n. 66, Hanegraaff writes that: ‘The ruling sect of Jews in Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were empty, unprincipled religionists,’ a sweeping statement that is almost unthinkable in Christian scholarship at the end of the twentieth century.”28 Brown fails to acknowledge Jesus’ own sweeping statements about Pharisees (e.g., Matt. 23:1-7, 13-36; cf. Luke 7:30). Moreover, Brown quotes only the portion of my footnote that would support his contention, cutting off my statement mid-sentence and thus mid-thought. The remainder of the sentence reads, “who, for the most part, rejected Christ and attributed Christ’s works to Beelzebub, or Satan” (emphasis added). Brown therefore accuses me of making a sweeping statement only by omitting the qualification for the statement.29

While much more could be said, unmasking all of the fabrications of Pensacola spin doctors would be an endless project. As they continue to seduce unsuspecting subjects through fabrications, fantasies and frauds, Blaise Pascal’s poignant words (in Pensees) ring down through the ages: “Truth is so obscure in these times and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”

MANIFESTATIONS VERSUS MESSAGE
As Pensacola promoters endeavor to spread their movement worldwide, they dogmatically declare that bizarre manifestations are not the focus of this revival. The facts say otherwise.

One of the videos used by Pensacola promoters is entitled “Honey, Where Are We From?” It features the testimony of a pastor and his wife who become so spiritually inebriated that they can’t remember where they are from. First, the wife becomes incoherent, and her husband intervenes to explain what she is attempting to say. Then he, too, becomes disoriented and is unable to think or speak rationally.30

The sensational physical manifestations of Alison and Elizabeth Ward are also strategically utilized to arouse people’s expectations for similar experiences. The sisters have been brought up before the entire congregation to describe and display their mysterious experiences, thus giving the people a sense that they are having a close encounter with the divine. Peer pressure is brought to bear as Elizabeth tells prospects, “After standing there so long watching those people being touched by God, I guess my spirit got hungry.” When she finally threw caution to the wind, she said, “The shaking went on for about three days….I couldn’t eat and I was shaking in my sleep. My family had to feed me through a straw. My whole body was convulsing for three days.”31 Her sister, Alison, says she shakes in the sanctuary because “it feels good.”32

Baptisms at Brownsville are used as yet another promotional gimmick. In a widely used promotional video some of the baptized jerk so violently that baptizers can no longer control their behavior. In one clip the subject shakes so severely that someone is actually kicked in the face.33 Physical danger is part and parcel of the process. Pensacola leaders point out that “the power of God falls during the Friday night water baptisms, and sometimes even the workers are overcome by the Spirit and have to be carried out of the water.”34 Ironically, a word of caution has come from the Brownsville pulpit about not sitting too close to other people during the time of ministry out of concern that someone under the influence of a manifestation might injure nearby worshipers.35

Thousands who have viewed the videos and subsequently experienced the manifestations testify to radically changed lives. Nevertheless, my 11-year-old son David and I recently attended a Christian convention during which the manifestations of Pensacola were promoted. He rode on an elevator with a couple of ladies who were still glowing from their spiritually intoxicating experience. They were delirious over the life-transforming work that the manifestations had produced in them. Suddenly, one of the ladies noticed my son’s name tag. Instantly she began shrieking, “I know who you are. You’re the son of the Bible Answer Man. You are a cursed child.”

My son David is not the only child who has tasted the fruit of Pensacola. Several children from a youth group traveled to Pensacola and experienced such severe twitching that when they returned to their classrooms, they were unable to do their schoolwork. After these children were dismissed from school, their pastor encouraged them to view their expulsion as persecution for the sake of Christ.36

BIBLICAL PRETEXTS
More bizarre than the manifestations themselves are the biblical pretexts that are used to validate them. As a case in point, Charisma magazine recently ran a series of articles designed to undermine my credibility and integrity.37 One article was a critical review of my book, Counterfeit Revival titled “They Called Jesus a Counterfeit, Too.” Even more telling than the overt deceptions contained in the article were the texts author Jon Ruthven used to legitimize the manifestations of counterfeit revival hotspots, such as Pensacola. Ruthven, an Assemblies of God minister and associate professor of systematic theology at Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia, writes,
Hanegraaff demands proof for the biblical grounds of charismatic revivalism. Yet he seems to ignore that many times in Scripture people who were influenced by the Holy Spirit acted in unusual ways.

When the Spirit “rushed” upon Saul in 1 Sam. 19:20-24, he stripped off his clothes, prophesied before Samuel and “lay down naked all that day and all that night” (v. 24, NKJV). Ezekiel displayed even more bizarre behavior after God told him to lie on his side, put “the iniquity of the house of Israel” on himself for 390 days, burn his hair and cook his food over human excrement! (Ezek. 4:4-5, 12; 5:1-2, 4). Isaiah was told by God to walk naked through Jerusalem for three years proclaiming judgment on the city (Is. 20:2-3)….We can only imagine how Hanegraaff would react to these types of behavior if they were to appear today. He seems to assume that Christian orthodoxy is a rationalistic, sterilized Calvinism that functions entirely on an intellectual level — devoid of the subjective spiritual dimension. 38

Before examining Ruthven’s abuse of Scripture, it should be noted in passing that his stereotyping of me in this review as an anticharismatic Calvinist and an antispiritual rationalist is disingenuous at best and, at worst, dishonest. A closer look at my background or a careful reading of my books would forever dispel this myth.

As for his use of the Bible, while at first blush his arguments from 1 Samuel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah may appear compelling, a careful examination will expose their absurdity:

1 Samuel 19:20-24. The fact that Saul stripped off his clothes, prophesied before Samuel, and laid down naked all day and night (v. 24) provides no validation for the peculiar manifestations in places like Pensacola.
First, as should be obvious, Ruthven’s interpretation of Saul’s nakedness cannot be used as normative behavior for Christians today. If it were, we would be compelled to endorse counterfeit revivalists who decided to parade around naked as a sign of spiritual enlightenment!

Furthermore, as a professor of systematic theology, one would presume that Ruthven is aware of the basic hermeneutical principle that narrative passages must always be interpreted in light of didactic or teaching passages (e.g., Scripture records Judas hanging himself, but it teaches that suicide is wrong).

Finally, this passage clearly reveals God’s judgment against Saul, not his blessing. In context, Saul is seeking to destroy David but instead is humiliated by the Holy Spirit. While the Holy Spirit had once come upon Saul to minister through him, on this occasion the Spirit came upon Saul to resist his evil intentions.

Ezekiel 4–5. Professor Ruthven claims that Ezekiel displayed even more bizarre behavior than Saul. By this reasoning, the precedent is in place for today’s revivalists to push the envelope beyond even nakedness.
First, the very fact that Ezekiel was engaged in an unusual process is precisely why it should not be considered normative for us today. If, indeed, it were the norm, it would not be much of a sign.

Furthermore, what Ruthven labels “bizarre behavior” is in reality extraordinarily meaningful. One need only take the time to read this passage in context to grasp God’s explanation for the symbolism of Ezekiel’s behavior. While unusual, it is neither random nor bizarre.
Finally, as with Saul, Ezekiel’s actions represent God’s judgment, not His blessing.

Isaiah 20. In yet another vain attempt to justify the radical behavior of today’s counterfeit revivalists, Ruthven uses the fact that God told Isaiah to walk naked through Jerusalem for three years.

First, as should be obvious to Professor Ruthven, the wording in Isaiah does not necessitate the notion that the prophet was stark naked. Complete nakedness would have been considered religiously, as well as socially, unacceptable — particularly in light of Middle Eastern culture.

Furthermore, as Hebrew scholars Keil and Delitzsch point out, “With the great importance attached to the clothing in the East, where the feelings upon this point are peculiarly sensitive and modest, a person was looked upon as stripped and naked if he had only taken off his upper garment. What Isaiah was directed to do, therefore, was simply opposed to common custom, and not to moral decency.”39

Finally, as previously noted with regard to Saul, if God had instructed Isaiah to walk around stark naked and if that is justification for Pensacola proclivities today, then if they really do start stripping, God can be blamed for setting the precedent for their bizarre behavior.

Tragically, Ruthven’s reasoning process is the norm rather than the exception for counterfeit revivalists. One need only scan books by Pensacola leaders, such as John Kilpatrick, Steve Hill, and Michael Brown, to find even more outrageous examples of texts taken out of context and used as pretexts for Pensacola extravagances.  

[Garland-Green]

Aping the Practices of Pagan Spirituality
Out of all the bizarre manifestations I have witnessed in today’s Counterfeit Revival, one scene has been indelibly etched into my consciousness. One Sunday morning I sat in the sanctuary of the Brownsville Assembly of God and watched in horror as a woman in the choir began to jerk her head violently from side to side. An hour went by, then another. All the while the violent shaking continued unabated as intermittently she bent spasmodically at the waist.

A church member noting the look of concern on my face quickly attempted to assure me that this woman was merely under the influence of the “Holy Ghost.” When I asked if she was certain it was the Holy Ghost, she seemed incredulous. “What else could it be?” she snapped. “We’re in church, aren’t we?” She went on to report that this woman had been shaking violently in the sanctuary for more than a year and a half.

Several months later on CNN’s Larry King Live, King asked me if there was a substantial difference between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the cults. In response I pointed out that Christianity was historic and evidential — not a blind leap into a dark chasm, but faith founded on objective fact. I went on to say that in sharp distinction, cult leaders attempt to subjugate their followers’ critical thinking faculties because the mind is seen to be the obstacle to enlightenment.

A striking parallel from paganism can be found in the ashram of Poona, India, where devotees of the late guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh engage in repetitive physical motions in order to work themselves into an altered state of consciousness. Their frenzied behavior produces a mind-altering form of hyperventilation, which empties the mind of coherent thought. In the end, they personify Rajneesh’s rendition of the mindless man.40

Sadly I had to acknowledge that what was once relegated to the ashrams of cults is now being replicated at the altars of churches, as Christians are beginning to ape the practices of pagan spirituality. Dr. Elizabeth Hillstrom concurs: “Having largely set aside their ability to think rationally and critically or to exercise their will, they have become hypersuggestible, which means that they are likely to accept any ‘spiritual truth’ that enters their minds. Even more remarkably, they seem to be primed for mystical experiences and may attach great spiritual significance to virtually any event or thought no matter how mundane or outlandish.”41

What heightens the danger of this kind of activity in churches is that Christians do not expect a counterfeit. While virtually the same methods employed in cultic communes can now be experienced in Christian churches, there is a significant difference. In the ashrams of Poona there is no pretense. Despite such dangers as spirit possession or insanity, Hindu gurus openly encourage trance states through which devotees tap into psychic realms and discover their “higher selves.” At the altars of Pensacola, however, these practices are cloaked in Christian terminology and attributed to the Holy Ghost rather than the pantheon of Hindu deities.

Whether in the ashrams of cults or at the altars of churches, the result of achieving an altered state of consciousness is always the same. It dulls the critical thinking process because the mind is seen to be the obstacle to enlightenment. As the worship leader of the Brownsville Assembly of God, Lindell Cooley, has prophesied, “The Lord is saying, ‘I’m bypassing your mind and going straight to your heart.’ …The heart is what matters to the Lord.”42 Though counterfeit revival leaders repeatedly express this concept, it is in reality a false dichotomy or a fictional antagonism. Not only are the mind and intellect of tremendous importance to the Lord in living the Christian life, but from the perspective of Scripture the heart is more a matter of understanding than of sentiment.

John Wesley correctly stated, “It is a fundamental principle that to renounce reason is to renounce religion, that religion and reason go hand in hand; all irrational religion is false religion.”43 While he recognized physical manifestations as a natural response to an encounter with the gospel, he also attributed enthusiasms such as falling, laughing, and jumping to the “simplicity” of people and to the ploys of Satan. Wesley recounted the story of a meeting that took place in 1773. A hymn was sung over and over some 30 or 40 times, resulting in bodily agitations on the part of some of the people present. In response to this phenomenon, he wrote, “Satan serves himself of their simplicity, in order…to bring a discredit on the work of God.”44
Years earlier, in 1740, an epidemic of laughter had broken out during a gathering in Bristol. Wesley said, “I was surprised at some, who were buffeted of Satan in an unusual manner, by such a spirit of laughter as they could in no wise resist.”45 A short time later the “spirit of laughter” returned. One lady present was “so violently and variously torn of the evil one” that “she laughed till almost strangled; then broke out into cussing and blaspheming; then stamped and struggled with incredible strength, so that four or five could scarcely hold her.”46

Pensacola practices, such as jerking spasmodically, laughing uncontrollably, and falling backward into trance states, are conspicuous by their absence in the ministry of Jesus Christ and the apostles. Conversely, they are commonplace in the world of the occult. Peter warned believers to be wary of just such pagan practices. He admonished believers to “be clear-minded and self-controlled” (1 Pet. 4:7).

It should also be noted that these practices are harmful and characteristic of neurological diseases such as palsy. Dr. Oliver Wilder-Smith warns, “[For] somebody who’s shaking their head violently for a long period of time, the potential for physical damage is massive because your cervical spine, which is a very delicate organ, is just not built for that sort of activity. I’m sure she’ll be having degenerative changes of all of the joints in her cervical spine very rapidly….The purely physical consequences of shaking your head for hours on end are very, very damaging from a purely medical point of view.”47
The spiritual consequences can be even more damaging. My concern for this woman and scores of others like her prompted me to plead with Pensacola pastor John Kilpatrick to consider the physical and spiritual consequences. While acknowledging that the woman I identified in his church “shakes like she has palsy,” he defiantly paraded her across his platform as a trophy of the “Pensacola Outpouring.” Ominously he shouted, “If you don’t want your head to start shaking — you make fun of someone in the choir shaking — come here a minute, girl. Come down here a minute. Hurry up. Hurry up, if you don’t want your head to do like this, you better lay your mouth off of her.”
The violent shaking that Kilpatrick deemed to be a mark of revival would for me become the mark of God’s wrath. Kilpatrick went on to prophesy judgment upon me: “I want to say something this morning to Hank Hanegraaff….if you want to keep any kind of a semblance of a ministry, you better back off from this revival and what God is doing. You better back off, because I am going to prophesy to you that if you don’t, and you continue to put your tongue in your mouth on this move of God, within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down. I said within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down.”48

While the “prophet” Kilpatrick said his words were a direct revelation from the Lord, the prophet Moses said that we need not fear those who utter false revelations: “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18:21-22).

BACK TO BASICS
A tragedy in modern-day Christianity is that people are looking for experience of God in all the wrong places. The real experience is found in getting back to basics.

Prayer
The body of Christ must rediscover the joy of genuine worship by developing a passion for authentic prayer. The Tuesday evening prayer meetings at Brownsville involve a practice known as “sweeping the sanctuary,” in which groups of people in militaristic fashion join hands and walk throughout the sanctuary and campus to bind hindering spirits that would threaten the revival.49 But genuine prayer is not about binding Satan or other sensationalistic ventures.

It is crucial that we become so focused on the real purpose, power, and provision of prayer that once again genuine prayer becomes our priority. While prayer involves supplication of our Lord, it is much more than that. Ultimately, prayer is the submission of our wills to God. That is precisely why R. A. Torrey said that “to pray the prayer of faith we must, first of all, study the Word of God, especially the promises of God, and find out what the will of God is.”50

Through prayer we have the privilege of expressing adoration and thanksgiving to the One who saved us, sanctifies us, and one day will glorify us. Through prayer we also confess our sins with the sure knowledge that “He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). And through prayer we indeed petition the Lord to send forth His people to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matt. 9:38; Col. 4:3), asking that He would open the hearts of the unbelieving so they might believe and be saved (e.g., Rom. 10:1).
F. B. Meyer has well observed that “the great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.”51

Scripture
The Scriptures not only form the foundation of an effective prayer life, but they are also foundational to every other aspect of Christian living. While prayer is our primary way of communication with God, the Scriptures are God’s primary way of communicating with us. Nothing should take precedence over getting into the Scriptures and getting the Scriptures into us.

One of the most important means of getting the Scriptures into us involves the faithful pulpit ministry of the local church. Unlike Pensacola’s propensity for severe holiness preaching based on emotional anecdotes, a genuine pulpit ministry must maintain substantive Bible-centered instruction week in and week out. More than exposure to intensely emotional sermons is needed in order to sustain a healthy Christian life.

If we fail to eat well-balanced meals on a regular basis, we will eventually suffer physical consequences. What is true of the outer person is also true of the inner person. If we do not regularly feed on the Word of God, we will suffer spiritual consequences. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).

Fellowship
As we rediscover the power of prayer and renew a passion for Scripture, we also need to rededicate ourselves to experiencing fellowship as a community of faith. We ought not think that we can find quick-fix solutions to our often distant and troubled relationships. Running off to Pensacola for an impartation to bring back to our home church is not the biblical prescription for healthy fellowship.52 Neither is the real experience found in focusing in on ourselves. Rather, the genuine biblical experience is found through focusing out on others. The question we should be asking is not, “What can an esoteric experience in church do for me?” but, “How can I use my experiences for the edification of others?” A sad commentary on modern Christianity is that when members of the body hurt, too often we relegate them to finding resources outside the walls of the church. That is precisely why the apostle Paul exhorts us, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality” (Rom. 12:10-13).

While counterfeit revival leaders clamor for unity without regard for truth, genuine fellowship can be experienced only in concert with the enduring truths of our Christian confession. In the words of J. I. Packer, “We are not entitled to infer from the fact that a group of people are drawing nearer to each other that any of them is drawing nearer to the truth.”53 We must never forget that it was for precisely these biblical truths that the martyrs spilled their blood. Hugh Latimer, who was burned at the stake for his confession of faith, cried out, “Unity must be ordered according to God’s Holy Word, or else it were better war than peace.”54

Witness
If more than 1.8 million55 people have experienced the Pensacola Outpouring in some way, one would never know it from examining the immediate vicinity of Brownsville. When I was in Pensacola, I personally interviewed a number of people on the street within a block from the Brownsville Assembly of God church.56 None of them had been positively impacted in the least by the so-called revival. Others who say they have canvassed the Browns-ville neighborhood report similarly.57

Do you want a real spiritual experience? Equip yourself to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Pet. 3:15-16).
If the early Christian church had one distinguishing characteristic, it was a passion to communicate the love, joy, and peace that only Christ can bring to the human heart. As we find ourselves entrenched in an era of esotericism, it is essential that Christians rediscover the ultimate experience of being used as a tool in the hands of almighty God in the process of transforming lives. Too many today believe that the task of apologetics is the exclusive domain of scholars and theologians. Not so! The defense of the faith is not optional. It should be part of basic training for every Christian.

AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Nowhere is there a more clear-cut contrast between genuine and counterfeit revival than when it comes to an eternal versus an earthly perspective. While the preaching of the Great Awakening was focused on eternal verities, the promises of counterfeit revivalists are often focused on earthly vanities. The more we listen to their messages, the more crystal clear their common refrain becomes. Leaders of the counterfeit revival demand the kingdom now! — in this life, with all its attendant material wealth, physical health, and public accolades.58 Jesus, however, said, “My kingdom is not of this world….My kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). As evidence of this, John’s gospel relates how quickly the shout, “Hosanna!… Blessed is the King of Israel!” (12:13) gave way to the cry, “Crucify him!…We have no king but Caesar” (19:15).

Like modern-day counterfeit revivalists, the sights of many would-be disciples of Jesus were focused on earth, not eternity. In sharp contrast, the leader of the first Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, was utterly convinced that in genuine revival the Spirit of God is at work “to lessen men’s esteem of the pleasures, profits, and honors of the world, and to take off their hearts from an eager pursuit after these things; and to engage them in a deep concern about a future state and eternal happiness which the gospel reveals—and puts them upon earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”59

Like Edwards, C. S. Lewis understood the utter folly of aiming at earth. As he so concisely put it, “Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”60

NOTES
1John Kilpatrick, In Times Like These (Pensacola, FL: Brownsville Assembly of God, 30 May 1996); videotape.2Steve Hill, Brownsville Assembly of God, 30 May 1996; videotape.3Michael Brown, From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 1996), back page promotion.4Brownsville Revival Testimonies web page at www.brownsville-revival.org/html/testimon.htm.5Steve Hill, Brownsville Assembly of God, 6 April 1997; videotape.6Dr. Carl Sightler, “Results from the Revival,” Brownsville Revival web site (see note 4).7Dr. Michael L. Brown, “Pensacola: God or Not?” Destiny Image Digest, Winter 1997, 39.8The Brownsville Assembly of God reports as of 10 August 1997, over 115,000 have responded to the altar calls since the revival began 18 June 1995 (www.brownsville-revival.org). Dale Schlafer, Becoming an Agent of Revival: Revival Primer (Denver: Promise Keepers, 1997), 21, reports 102,000 converts. A publisher’s blurb on the last page of Dr. Michael Brown’s book, From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire: America on the Edge of Revival (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 1996), says, “In less than two years, Evangelist Steve Hill has won hundreds of thousands to Christ….” A widely distributed promotional flyer for Awake America at Anaheim CA 28-29 September 1997 with Pastor John Kilpatrick and Evangelist Steve Hill states: “In Pensacola hundreds of thousands of people have come to Jesus.” In an Internet Reapernet Chat session, 6 May 1997 (chat.reapernet.com), Dr. Michael Brown wrote: “As for the question of why we are now speaking about numbers of people responding to the altar calls as opposed to numbers of people being ‘saved,’ the reasoning is simple. In point of fact, all of us HATE exaggeration and hype, and from the start, conservative figures were being used. Actually, between 250,000-300,000 people have responded to the altar calls, not the 103,000 figure you may see. But we know that not all of these people were actually being saved or coming back to the Lord, therefore we used a very low number for people ‘saved.’ However, since we cannot follow-up on every individual, and since we don’t want to exaggerate anything in the slightest, we speak now of those coming to the Lord or responding to the altars calls, also avoiding unnecessary controversy. Of course — and this is the good news! — we can point to multiplied thousands of radical converts, and really, hundreds of thousands around the country through the revival.” In Good News (July-August 1996 np), Steve Hill is quoted as saying: “We’re seeing a thousand people saved a week, but we are very conservative with the figures.”).9To the extent that true conversions have taken place as a result of the Pensacola Outpouring, I rejoice (Phil. 1:18.). Of course, what I am concerned about is the kind of Christianity these converts are being led into and the kind of Christianity this movement is depicting to the world. Conversions do not relieve teachers of responsibility and accountability for their unbiblical teachings and practices.10My office contacted the Pensacola Sheriff’s Department on March 20, 1997 (Sheriff Loman and Sergeant Spears — Brownsville is in their district). Not only were we told that this did not happen, but also that the only possible reason for suspected drug dealers to be taken to a revival would be if it were part of a parole stipulation ordered by a parole judge.11See Bible Answer Man program interview with Michael Brown, 20 March 1997.12As of 25 July 1997 this fabrication remains on the Brownsville AOG web site.13As Christians we must not make public claims without verifiable evidence to back up those claims (e.g., 1 Thess. 5:21; 2 Cor. 13:1; Heb. 10:28.).14Statistics available through the Pensacola Police Department.15Steve Rabey, “Pensacola Outpouring Keeps Gushing,” Christianity Today, 3 March 1997, 57.16Orange County Register, 13 March 1997, Metro 1. Of course, CRI does not claim responsibility for the drop in Orange County’s crime rate.17Steve Hill, “Heart to Heart, with Evangelist Steve Hill,” Destiny Image Digest, Winter 1997, 14.18Maul Ely, Brownsville Assembly of God, 16 March 1997; audiotape.19Hill, “Heart to Heart,” 14.20Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival (Dallas: Word Publishers, 1997), 83-101.21Michael Bowman, e-mail message to Debra Bouey (forwarded to CRI 29 July 1997, CRI files).22Michael L. Brown, Let No One Deceive You: Confronting the Critics of Revival (Shippensburg, PA: Revival Press, 1997).23Ibid., 242-43.24Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival, 106.1925As quoted in ibid., 47.26Ibid., 106.27Ibid.28Brown, Let No One Deceive You, 244.29These points, in addition to numerous others, concerning Brown’s indictment of Counterfeit Revival were brought to my attention through a very thoughtful analysis written by Shawn Paul Suave. Many who have undertaken the arduous effort of analyzing Brown’s arguments have highlighted similar issues.30“Honey, Where Are We From?” In Times Like These (Pensacola, FL: Brownsville Assembly of God, 8 June 1996); videotape.31Larry Walker, “Sisters in the Fire: Alison and Elisabeth Ward,” Destiny Image Digest, Winter 1997, 27.32“Amy Elizabeth Ward, ‘Mercy Seat,’ Alison Ward,” In Times Like These (Pensacola, FL: Brownsville Assembly of God, n.d.); videotape.33“The Voice of Many Waters,” In Times Like These (Pensacola, FL: , Brownsville Assembly of God, n.d.) (testimonies from baptismal services); videotape.34Michael Brown, “Revival in Brownsville?” Destiny Image Digest, Winter 1997, 36.35E.g., Brownsville Assembly of God, Sunday evening service, 16 March 1997, personal eyewitness testimony of Hank Hanegraaff.36CRI’s research included interviews with eyewitnesses to this case.37See Charisma, July 1997, 36-41, 60-62.38Jon Ruthven, “They Called Jesus a Counterfeit, Too,” Charisma, July 1997, 61.39Franz Delitzsch, Isaiah, Volume VII in Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1976), 372.40Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, quoted in Fear Is the Master (Hemet, CA: Jeremiah Films, 1986); video.41Elizabeth L. Hillstrom, Testing the Spirits (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 79. 42Lindell Cooley, “1997 Conference on the Ministry,” Grand Rapids, 7 January 1997, as cited in G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman, “The Murky River of Brownsville: The Strange Doctrine and Practice of the Pensacola Revival,” The Quarterly Journal, April-June 1997, 17.43Quoted in Os Guiness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994), 3244John Wesley, as quoted in Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994 edition), 533.45Ibid.46John Wesley, as quoted in Nick Needham’s appendix, “Holy Laughter — The Experience of John Wesley,” Was Jonathan Edwards the Founding Father of the Toronto Blessing? (Welling, Kent, England: self-published, 1995), 39.47Dr. Oliver Wilder-Smith, Bible Answer Man radio program, 15 May 1997.48John Kilpatrick, “God’s Ears,” Brownsville Assembly of God Revival Service, 6 April 1997; videotape.49For frank and unashamed accounts of these prayer meetings, see the Brownsville Assembly of God official web site (www.brownsville-revival.org).50R.A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 123-24.51John Blanchard, Gathered Gold (Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1984), 231.52Another significant problem with the Brownsville revival is the lack of accountability offered for new converts. The Brownsville AOG acknowledges that they do not know whether the vast majority of the thousands upon thousands of recorded conversions have been baptized, enrolled in a discipleship program, or regularly attend church. (Fax response from Rose Compton of the Brownsville Assembly of God, Pensacola, FL, 13 December 1996.)53Blanchard, Gathered Gold , 37.54Ibid., 39. Hugh Latimer (1485–16 October 1555) was an English reformer who was burned at the stake under the authority of Catholic Queen Mary Tudor.55Figure as of 7 September 1997 (www.brownsville-revival.org).562-4 May 1997.57E.g., Joseph R. Chambers, “False Brags and Real Facts,” The End Times and Victorious Living, March–April 1997, 7. See also the report offered during the 10 June 1997 Internet Reapernet Chat session (chat.reapernet.com).58While this particular criticism applies more to counterfeit revivalists in general (see Counterfeit Revival, 67-162, especially 105-9) than specifically to the Pensacola revivalists, the latter have exhibited such tendencies. For example, John Kilpatrick says, “When God blesses somebody or God promotes somebody, I want to warn you now, expect self-promoters to become jealous. What did Jesus say? He knew what He was talking about. He said I will bless you with houses and land and mothers and fathers. He said no man has ever given up anything in my Kingdom. I will bless you with houses and land. Mark 10:29-30….He said if you give it up and you sacrifice, I will see it and I will bless you and I will promote you but when I promote you, you won’t get rid of any of those things and suffer and sacrifice any of those things but what I will bless you and repay you. He said I will give you those things in this life but you are going to have them with persecution….God has got His hand on you…and [is] going to bless you even more as this thing continues to go along…and He is going to bless you even more because it is a law of God, a principle of God.” (John Kilpatrick, “Moving on Up,” Brownsville Assembly of God, 12 January 1997, tape no. 509, part 2. Transcript provided from official Brownsville AOG web site, (www.brownsville-revival.org.) Stephen Hill is quoted as saying: “Yes, I love the anointing. But I believe there is more. You see, my shadow isn’t healing the sick yet. I want my shadow to heal the sick. I want the dead to be raised. I want people to call me when their son or daughter dies, asking me to come to the funeral parlor. I want to see the dead raised. So there is more“ (emphasis in original). (Steve Hill, “Heart to Heart, with Evangelist Steve Hill,” Destiny Image Digest, Winter 1997, 18.)59Jonathan Edwards, Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, 267.60Edythe Draper, Edythe Draper’s Book of Quotations (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992), 305.

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